For the most part, Japanese people are not overtly competitive in their daily lives. That is, they will not try to boast about their abilities or downplay your experiences or capabilities to make themselves feel smarter or more capable. If anything, they will downplay their skills to avoid looking boastful because such behavior is seen as crass in Japan and looked down upon. With many Western people, you often find that you're constantly putting up with their egotistical impulses to appear to be smarter, more skillful, and prove they are better than you. Many Western people do this and are totally unaware of what they're up to, but some are quite aware and just self-important jerks.
I'll miss the lack of one-upmanship behavior in Japan.
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