Is there any equivalent English phrase to Japanese “対岸の火事,” meaning “like watching a fire on the bank of the other side of a river”?

There was the referendum on Britain’s departure from EU, the nominations of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as presidential candidates of Democratic and Republican parties, the suppression of a coup d’état in Turkey, a series of terrorist bomb attacks and civilian shootings in the city centre. A lot of things are happening today. But it is also true that there are many people around us who don’t care at all what are happening in the world.

In Japan, we call the attitude of those who look on these issues as nothing to do with themselves “they look it as a 対岸の火事" – fire on the bank of the other side of a river.

Is there a figurative expression to mean the same with “対岸の火事” in English?


Probably not a perfect fit, but close in meaning is:

It's no skin off my nose. (British, American & Australian informal) also It's no skin off my (back) teeth. (American informal)

  • something that you say which means you do not care about something because it will not affect you.

(Cambridge Idioms Dictionary)


It's not my dog — TFD

It’s not my problem.
"So what! It doesn’t matter! Not my dog."

"Not my circus, not my monkeys", literal translation of a Polish idiom, would be interesting too.