Elders respected in Japan!

Most Japanese still have a lot of respect for age. That includes senior citizens and also those older than oneself. Generally speaking, Japanese culture is not the youth culture that has developed in the West. Japanese respect age - in fact they value it highly. To put it simply, Japanese assume that most people who have lived a long time know a lot more than we do.

In Japan it's not a bad thing to be old, as it is in some other places. Japanese value the maturity and experience you can only get with age. In fact Japanese celebrate the sixtieth birthday as something special. Because it's considered a new beginning. On the sixtieth birthday people traditionally wore red vests. Some still do. Japanese think red is a lucky color. And friends and relatives may bring gifts. It's a very happy occasion.