On September 2, 2026, a post titled 'I envy studying abroad in Japan' on China's social media platform Xiaohongshu (RED) has attracted the attention of Chinese netizens.

The poster stated, 'Every time I watch a Vlog introducing Japanese school life, I truly feel envious. It's like a world from an anime, with school festivals and club activities, and while there must be exam pressure, I feel there's a little more leeway than in China.'

They continued, 'Not only do I long for school life, but I also like the atmosphere of Japanese life itself, and there are many places to go for fun. I've been studying Japanese for a while, so I hope to actually go to Japan someday.'

In response, Chinese netizens shared positive experiences such as: 'I attended a national university in a rural area of Japan, and all my Japanese classmates were diligent and very kind,' and 'I attended a local high school, and back then, school life was really like a Japanese anime. I was very happy at the time.'

On the other hand, there were also comments detailing the difficulties of life in Japan, such as: 'I don't know about school life, but the work environment isn't very good,' 'You envy studying abroad in Japan? If you actually come, you'll see how unique Japanese language schools are and how much pressure there is for entrance exams (lol),' and 'Exams are quite tough. The procedures are complicated and take a long time. But entertainment is really plentiful (lol).'

Furthermore, opinions pointing out the difficulty of human relationships with Japanese people were also numerous, such as: 'There's a saying, 'In Japan, you can make friends with anyone from anywhere in the world, as long as they're not Japanese.' Think about what that means,' and 'I have a friend who studied abroad in Japan and said, 'I like Japan as a country, but I don't like Japanese people.' Apparently, after several years of studying abroad, they couldn't make a single Japanese friend.'

In addition, advice was also offered, such as: 'I think you won't know until you experience it yourself. The criteria for feeling stifled and one's tolerance vary from person to person. What might be stressful for others might be fine for you. Every place has both good and bad aspects, so you should just do what you want to do.'