Eat Lunch in a Public Bathroom

Some Japanese people, particularly younger female generation including students, eat their lunch in a public bathroom.

Reason?

Some reports say that those people do not have anyone to eat lunch with and cannot help eating alone, however, they do not want to be seen by others, "Oh, s/he does not have any friend..."

The reports comment that the sole people obsess about this kind of the other's view because such a view might lead to a reputation that "S/he is alone without any friend because s/he has some personality problem."

The reports further provide that the eating lunch alone situation sometimes result in the people leaving her or his school or company.

Well, sorry to those people...  And I think this is very "Japanese."

The Japan society tends to respect group rather than individual.  We need to always obsess about the other's view toward ourselves.

Japanese are agricultural people, who are required to act as a group most of the time and to be not different from other members of the group.  This is not a matter of good or bad, but is just a fact that the rule helps harmonize our society, and not following this unspoken rules might result in that person's unhappy situation.

I guess particularly western people feel, like I do, that this kind of rule restricts each individual's freedom and thus does not have to be followed.  Unfortunately, the realty is not that easy and this unspoken rule of this society causes some problems, such as harassment.

The eating lunch in the public bathroom matter seems to have the above cause.

All above are just my thoughts, which are not necessarily agreed.
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