TikTokers are experiencing the 'Japan effect'

"Apparently any place looks better if you just say it's Japan. That's according to a TikTok trend, dubbed the "Japan effect." First reported in Casey Lewis's youth trends newsletter After School, the trend has users making slideshows of two images. For all intents and purposes they are the same, except one is labelled with the original location and the second is labelled Tokyo, Japan."

""I've seen so many of these videos and it's made me realise my own huge Japan bias," one comment read. "Why is it so real." (Some do play around with the saturation or add soft pink filters which somewhat undermines the theory). Others suggest the "Japan effect" has little actually to do with Japan. Instead, it's an example of the grass always being greener or the shift in perspective when we take a moment to romanticize the mundane parts of life, they say."

TikTok users create slideshows presenting two identical images with different location labels, one labeled with the original location and the other labeled Tokyo, Japan. Viewers commonly perceive the Tokyo-labeled image as more attractive, a phenomenon called the "Japan effect." Some creators slightly edit saturation or add soft pink filters, which can influence perceptions. Commenters attribute the effect to a preexisting Japan bias or to romanticizing the mundane, while others say it reflects a psychological tendency to undervalue familiar surroundings. Growing interest in Japanese culture, including anime and matcha, reinforces perceptions of Japan as making everyday places seem cooler.

Read at Fast Company