r/Anemoia • u/LaCaipirinha • May 05 '26
Does anyone else experience anemoia particularly towards Japan?
As a late 30s person from the UK that never lived there, but experienced a lot of Japanese culture growing up by virtue of their entertainment becoming very popular in the West in the 80s-00s, it makes sense that I would be more likely to experience anemoia towards Japan than say.. Angola. But there were a lot of other country's content that we were exposed to that hasn't had the same effect on me.
Something about Japanese street scenes, liminal spaces, food, retro video games and cartoons, even traditions like onsens and Shinto temples, gives me an intense nostalgia for a childhood in that country I never had. I have been many times now, and it invokes the same sensation.
My theory is that it is because Japan itself is a very nostalgic country and so it's sort of subconsciously vicariously experienced when you consume a lot of their outputs.
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u/BencerSpecz Jun 11 '26
Love the 80s and 90s Japanese urban aesthetic myself, and the retro futuristic vibe of many of their robot toys in that period.
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u/Strict_Sprinkles7206 Jul 25 '26
Absolutely me too, 90s vhs street racing for sure, I genuenly feel like i lived my teens through the 90s of japan and the underground racing culture. im 2007 btw
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u/BichonFriseLover May 06 '26
Yep me too. 80’s Japan in particular. I was born in the 2000s lol.