> you don't just walk up to people and strike up a conversation
I find this is not really true. This depends a LOT on the context in Japan. If you are in the train or in the street, yeah, it's not the right place to do that. But there are plenty of other places where such interactions happen naturally. Go in a bar? People will start talking to you. Go have dinner in a small izakaya? There's a good chance people will talk to you. Visit a tourist spot? There's a good probability something like that will happen as well. And not just with foreigners, this happens with locals as well.
So, it's far from being black or white. Just like a lot of statements I hear the whole time about Japan.
Is this in the context of traveling there as a foreigner? I found that quite a few Japanese people were willing to come up and start a conversation with me, but now that I think of it, I didn't see much casual conversation between locals.
> Is this in the context of traveling there as a foreigner
I specifically said that no, it's not just me. I have seen and heard locals talking about this happening to them a lot. I'd say this happens even less likely as a foreigner because people will just strike a short conversation with you if they can barely speak English and that will stop there. Between locals it can go on for much longer.
I noticed when visiting that in scenarios like you mentioned strangers would have no problem striking up a conversation or some other interaction. Nice scenario where I noticed this was when on hiking trails.
I find this is not really true. This depends a LOT on the context in Japan. If you are in the train or in the street, yeah, it's not the right place to do that. But there are plenty of other places where such interactions happen naturally. Go in a bar? People will start talking to you. Go have dinner in a small izakaya? There's a good chance people will talk to you. Visit a tourist spot? There's a good probability something like that will happen as well. And not just with foreigners, this happens with locals as well.
So, it's far from being black or white. Just like a lot of statements I hear the whole time about Japan.