Then let me dig into the other side.
Teachers, though being on good terms which each other, may call those other teachers by their last name if they talk about them with the kids or the parents.
Doctors at a hospital, though being on good terms which each other, may call those other doctors by Dr Lastname if they talk about them with patients.
Judge and District Attorney, though being on good terms which each other, may call the other by their last or role name in Court during the process.
And then there’s my country
Where everyone either calls you by your name, a nickname or your family name turns into a nickname if it’s catchy or unique
From children to teachers to politicians
Absolutely everyone
No such thing as being formal, we even dress casually to weddings and funerals
YUYUの日本語 podcast this week had an episode (#341) where he talked about 内 vs 外 (and some other related concepts) in the context of making Japanese friends. I found it interesting having just read those sections in the bookclub so I thought I’d call it out if anyone else wanted to give it a listen.
Will be a bit busy tomorrow so sending a reminder about Week 3 now instead!
Have fun everyone! it’s our last week on Chapter 1 before we move on to Chapter 2 
Reading しつけ part made me feel sorry for all the kids in Japan orz
Speaking about 甘え: I always thought Japanese people feel awkward in a situation where someone is “nice“ to them 
Edit: but in the West children are also tought to recognize and acknowledge that someone was nice to them by saying: thank you, and a child that does not need their parents to tell them to say “thank you“ is considered well educated. So all in all I am again not d’accord with the opinion of the Japanese expert, this time that people are not aware of 甘え in the West.
There was an entire 100 page chapter that I read recently in 越境者が読んだ近代日本文学―境界をつくるもの、こわすもの | L36?? about 甘え that referenced academic works of sociology, and the author offhandedly mentioned that the idea 甘え exists only in Japan as 日本人論 haha. 
I made an in depth post about it:
I haven’t started the club pick yet but when I saw the chapter on 甘え I became quite interested! Will start soon and judge for myself.
I am slightly late but I finished chapter 1!
I enjoyed the chapter on 甘え and was amused to find the author of this book actually referenced the same book the author of the OTHER book I’m reading (in my post above) also referenced about it - 「甘え」の構造 by 土居健郎. Now that I’ve encountered references to this book twice within the span of one month, maybe I need to read it too?
I think now that I’ve done so much reading about 甘え and feel like I understand the concept decently well, I would say that it exists everywhere but might be valued to differing extents based on the culture just like everything I guess.
I appreciated finding out where the term 「へそ曲がり」came from during this chapter because I never thought about it before. 
The chapter about 「けじめ」 was also interesting because I did not perceive that word in that way in terms of compartmentalizing things before.
I am very much behind. I just read けじめ last night and while I was aware of this being important in Japan, I didn’t know it had a name. It’s an interesting concept, imo.
I grew up with this being quite prevelant in my own country still, but it keeps being eroded more and more. There is still some of it left, but by far nowhere near what it used to be and the generation currently growing up will probably get rid of it completely.
