Some people complain that Japanese people don't laugh enough, that Japanese society today is too strait-laced.

Are the Japanese too serious, too stressed? Perhaps they are -- but aren't we all?

In any case, Japanese has an awful lot of onomatopoeic words describing laughter. Fu! fu! fu! is a kind of hidden, sly (and girly) cackle; gwa ha ha! is a gloating guffaw; kya! kya! is how young people, especially girls, laugh, or express happiness when, for example a celebrity enters a room. U shi shi! is vulgar and often behind someone's back.