What's the deal with holding hands?

[Twalli]

In a lot of anime and manga, a guy and a girl holding hands seems to be a big deal for them. Yet in the US, hand holding is pretty much a nonissue and most of us did this when we really didn't want to do it at a young age. Is the holding hands thing just an anime thing, or is it actually a big deal in Japan?

P. S. Now nobody should be holding hands, because of COVID-19, but I mean in general.

[IMuser]

Do you realise how open is the West (US, Canada, Europe etc) is in terms of relationships?

In many Asian countries, guys hardly date before 20 or something. Some date after 25 (or some are in arranged marriage)

Anime is made for Japanese audience, not American

[Twalli]

Hence why I asked the question. I don't know the relationship guidelines there, I never lived there or studied their culture.

[IMuser]

Ahhh well in majority of Asian cultures, dating is not a really common thing (some countries are copying from West but the parents are old school). For instance a girl's parents refused "friendship" (I actually had confessed to her) because I had less grades than her. So you can see that before you have a job (we don't work in teenage, at least in majority of countries') dating does not exist

The exploration you do in your Teenage (a guy in US) at the age of 15 or 16 is equivalent to a guy's exploration in 23-24 of age. Furthermore, there are parents who are adamant on arranged marriages (parents use their contacts to find a family which has a girl and who is interested in marrying a guy)

Makes sense?

[Twalli]

From a historical standpoint. That's my area of expertise

[IMuser]

Huh?

[Twalli]

I can understand the history and tradition aspect pretty easily. I got a degree in it. That's how I look at things.

[HighlyVolatile]

Kids here tend to hold hands all the time but there is kind of a focus on very innocent and shy romances in fiction, like a guy so shy and creepy that he gets excited to share a drink with a girl and thinks of it as a second-hand kiss. The way actual Japanese date tends to be quite different from these fantasies.

[HighlyVolatile]

I think one difference from the US is that being extremely shy and innocent is kind of a popular and romanticized image for both male and female characters in fiction. So an extremely shy guy would make a huge deal if a girl he's crushing on just hugs him in a friendly way, for example. I think that's true for extremely shy guys in the US as well, but they aren't glorified so much in fiction.

[Mao_Ren]

Not only in japan but Asian doesn't do that to any people.

We don't hug or touch each other unless we are very close. It's kind of... part of the culture.

Young people these days holding hand in public if they're in relationship like you said, similar like in the anime.

And anime are based potrayed from daily life, I wouldn't say everything 100% true but some of them are.

Hope this help answering your question

[exitseven]

Sometimes just holding hands can be such a subtle but exciting thing.

[poneglyphs]

It's probably jist an anime and manga thing and doesn't really have any real application