"Grandpa, I'm home!" - The dynamic of the Japanese family.

One of the biggest cultural differences I see every day, being a Western English teacher in Japan, is the family dynamic.

A lot of my students live in houses or even apartments with their mothers, fathers, siblings and grandparents,-the same applies to my Japanese work collegagues and older students who, commonly, are well into their twenties, thirties, forties and even fifties.

This isn't unusual in Japan-it all ties in with the (very difficult it would seem to Brits) complex culture of family. There is no carting grandma off to a nursing home once she reaches retirment age. Instead, both she and grandpa will be sticking around to bunk in with the newborns, toddlers and teenagers.

It's an admirable concept, especially when you see the strong bond Japanese children have with their grandparents and the level of care families take of one another.

However, generally speaking, British culture is too throwaway, too used to its privelages and, above all, far too self-centred to keep every family member close to its bosom and still maintain the immense respect the Japanese seem to have for their relatives.

Although putting elderley parents in nursing homes is not a shootable offense by any means and is a very real necessity for a lot of families, the Japanese rarely blame a busy, stress-filled lifestyle on them not being able to put their parents up.

Japanese men and women work harder and with much more conviction invested in their employers than the British. Also, contrary to belief, mothers are increasingly (although slowly) breaking away from the tradition of staying at home, and therefore, are not there all day to care for elderly relatives once their children reach school age.

So, how do the Japanese manage it? This is where the vast difference between life expectancy in Britain and Japan tips the balance significantly.

Despite the heavy drinking, smoking and fast-food guzzling apparent on a daily basis, the Japanese elderley are still infinetely more healthy and far less ailment-dogged than their British counterparts. Though life expectancy between the UK and Japan is not so different (77 compared to 80.7), the disease rate is higher. Japan has one of the lowest heart disease rates in the world, whereas Britain has one of the highest.

Therefore, the fact that older Japanese people have fewer ailments or diseases than their British counterparts, they are at the advantage that, aged fifty or more, its still very viable for them to entertain and care for their grandchildren without too many physical barriers.

So, collectively, families still manage to juggle the massive amount of pressure involved in several generations living under one roof. Perhaps the largest pressure, in a country where lack of living space is a big issue, is privacy (hence the popularity of love hotels among teenagers and all-nighters and capsule hotels among over-worked salarymen).

Despite physical closeness, Japanese families, as in every country in the world, are not necessarily emotionally close. To offer an example, (excluding names of course), a friend of mine who lives with both parents, siblings and grandparents has failed to tell any of them about her serious three-year relationship. Additionally, upon hearing her father announce to his family that his bosses demand he move to a city three hours away, my friend did not seem excessively upset about the situation.

Having several generations under one roof is a tradition involving many complex aspects, that the Japanese have inherted and one that us British people may find unthinkable and vice versa. Interesting stuff.