The layer of human turmoil - looting and scuffles for food or services - that often comes in the wake of disaster seems noticeably absent in Japan.
“Looting simply does not take place in Japan. I’m not even sure if there’s a word for it that is as clear in its implications as when we hear ‘looting,’" said Gregory Pflugfelder, director of the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University.
Japanese have “a sense of being first and foremost responsible to the community,” he said.
To Merry White, an anthropology professor at Boston University who studies Japanese culture , the real question is why looting and disorder exist in American society. She attributes it largely to social alienation and class gaps.
"There IS some alienation and indeed some class gaps in Japan too but violence, and taking what belongs to others, are simply not culturally approved or supported," White said in an e-mail.
Pflugfelder is in Japan for a conference and has witnessed the calm response in Tokyo firsthand. Tokyo is hundreds of miles from the 8.9-magnitude earthquake’s epicenter and the widespread devastation.
Pflugfelder was inside the National Diet Library when the earthquake struck.
“The fact that the library decided to let people stay an hour and a half past closing time was one of the first things that made me realize the scale of the disaster because that kind of departure from schedule, from the norms, is quite unusual,” he said.
The orderly lines that formed when the subway reopened around midnight also made an impression on Pflugfelder.
“Such social order and discipline are so enforced in ordinary times that I think it’s very easy for Japanese to kind of continue in the manner that they’re accustomed to, even under an emergency.”
The communitarian spirit at the foundation of Japanese culture seems to function even more efficiently under the stress of disaster, he said.
The natural American inclination is to operate independently.
“So you do everything you can to protect your own interests with the understanding that, in a rather free-market way, everybody else is going to do the same. And that order will come out of this sort of invisible hand.
“And Japanese don’t function that way. Order is seen as coming from the group and from the community as a sort of evening out of various individual needs.”
Will this social attitude help Japan recover from this disaster? "In a word, yes."
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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wow.. its really wonderfull people.. let the mighty God give all the garce to you all.. hope this love will bring into a real being that all will know that we are the children of God.. trough the love of Jesus Christ... i shared the grive here.. praying for you all...,
日本人は相手の事を尊重します。
そして、自分が被害にあったらどんな思いをするかを考えます。
この２つの事を考えると略奪は発生しません。
自分の家族が被害にあったらどんな思いをしますか？
簡単なことです。
略奪なんか出来ません。
Fukushima 50 and the samurai http://www.akban.org/blog_en/article/132
Sorry but I remember the blackouts in NYC . Their was no looting and fires in my neighborhood. But the black neighborhoods were destroyed with looting and rioting etc. Now can anyone tell me why, OH and it was not because we were in a rich area, we were just in a white neighborhood!
with the name Ali. I would hope that you are not a Muslim. Because if your are you should not be speaking in such a tone about any people that Allah has created. Just thought that you may need a reminder. If you are a Muslim
Please don't singled out a specific race, breakdown of morality happens with asian, middle eastern, whites, etc. etc.....too, a persons actions is his or her responsibility, not because he or she happens to be black. I am Asian and not all of us are good in math.
u mad?
Katrina is not a place, it is the name of the hurricane that affected New Orleans.
Let's just hope the people suffering from these catastrophes will be able to get back to normalcy asap. We don't know where or when the next earthquake, major hurricane, etc will strike.
we are living in one world.
lol, on the *internet*? You want people to be respectful of this horrific tragedy...*on the internet?!*
I think they should be very proud of themselves for their earthquake engineering, can't imagine how many more people could have died, but this is a long way from over.
"didnt"
"rascist"
"suprised"
"stupidy"
"Its"
Remind me who can and can't write. I'm getting confused!
Callin' racist folks stupid an ignorant, sayin' they can't read an are no better than animals... Sounds like it's own form of bigotry. You lookin' fer someone to hate, an you just picked the most socially acceptable target. Fer shame.
I don't understand what you are saying/mean. Perhaps there is a medication increase needed, yes?
I think NASCAR is on Doug, why don't u go pop the beer, kick the cat, beat the wife and kids, make love to ur mom, slump back in your lazy boy, and enjoy the show.
You took the words right out of my mouth.....