The Telegraph: Why is there no looting in Japan?

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The Telegraph: Why is there no looting in Japan?
Ed West, Last updated: March 14th, 2011

blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100079703/why-is-there-no-looting-in-japan/#

It is very sad indeed to see what has happened in Japan but to think of the way so many, many thousands of people acted after Katrina and compair the way the Japanese people are behaving has revealed some very stark things about some communities in America.😊

"Respect for property even in the middle of disaster (Photo: EPA)

The landscape of parts of Japan looks like the aftermath of World War Two; no industrialised country since then has suffered such a death toll. The one tiny, tiny consolation is the extent to which it shows how humanity can rally round in times of adversity, with heroic British rescue teams joining colleagues from the US and elsewhere to fly out.

And solidarity seems especially strong in Japan itself. Perhaps even more impressive than Japan’s technological power is its social strength, with supermarkets cutting prices and vending machine owners giving out free drinks as people work together to survive. Most noticeably of all, there has been no looting, and I’m not the only one curious about this.

This is quite unusual among human cultures, and it’s unlikely it would be the case in Britain. During the 2007 floods in the West Country abandoned cars were broken into and free packs of bottled water were stolen. There was looting in Chile after the earthquake last year – so much so that troops were sent in; in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina saw looting on a shocking scale.

Why do some cultures react to disaster by reverting to everyone for himself, but others – especially the Japanese – display altruism even in adversity?"
 
Unfortunately, there isn’t much to loot, nor people to do the looting. I’m expecting deaths in the hundreds of thousands.

Tragic,

John
 
I’m SO GLAD someone else has noticed this. I believe that there are two reasons. Firstly, the Japanese are, on average, highly intelligent. Secondly, they have not (at least not yet) fallen victim to rampant “multiculturalism”. This means that they can indoctrinate their children in their public schools with a unified vision and understanding of social morality that is NEVER challenged. Students respect their teachers. Children respect their parents. Wives respect their husbands.

I think Western civilization once came very close to achieving this. When the Titanic sank back in 1912, the men stood by and helped the women and children into the lifeboats. Chilvalry was not yet dead. But in the later half of the 20th century, particularily after WWII, all this began to change. Somehow SOMEBODY sewed the seeds of social self-destruction; the “youth movement” of the 1960’s, the “generation gap”, “women’s liberation”, easy-divorce, abortion, the “me decade” of the 70’s, the “gimme decade” of the 80’s, etc. and then it all got destroyed.

Well, that’s the lens I view it all through anyway… 🤷
 
The most impressive thing that I have seen was at a grocery store. They limited purchases to ten items per person and what happened? Everyone filed into a neat line, patiently waited their turn, selected their 10 items (no one chose non-essential items), paid for them, and went about their business. Such respect for law and order in the face of unprecidented catasrophe should be the envy of every nation.
 
GratefulDad said:
Why do some cultures react to disaster by reverting to everyone for himself, but others – especially the Japanese – display altruism even in adversity?
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The answer is almost there in the question. Different cultures just have different mindsets and values. The Japanese especially have more pressure to promote honor for themselves and their families, and it helps that the general public is not allowed to own handguns. Even when there is crime, it tends to be “higher-class” and more organized.

In America, especially in the New Orleans area (which is where I was born and raised, so I’m well aware of this behavior), there really is the mindset of wanting preservation and improvement only for oneself. The value of family and respect tends to be much more downplayed here, especially in the poorer minority populations that have historically often been left to fend for themselves. Regrettably, that’s how the pattern seems to be, and it seems to have been going for generations.

I continue to pray for the Japanese and their recovery from this terrible tragedy. I truly admire their strength in the midst of this and thank God for that as well.
:signofcross:
 
Such respect for law and order, even in the face of unprecidented catasrophe, should be the envy of every nation.
Click to expand...
I’d ask you to analyze that a bit more in a historic perspective. The culture remains…do you really want it?

John
 
Knowing the culture and language of both countries, I can sum it up like this:

In America, we value the individual to a fault. In Japan, they value the group to a fault. Both at the cost of the other.

I love my country and I love Japan, but both are far from perfect. Both could learn much from the other.
 
Knowing the culture and language of both countries, I can sum it up like this:
Click to expand...
In America, we value the individual to a fault. In Japan, they value the group to a fault. Both at the cost of the other.
Click to expand...
I love my country and I love Japan, but both are far from perfect. Both could learn much from the other.
Click to expand...
Agreed,

John
 
dimittuntur said:
Knowing the culture and language of both countries, I can sum it up like this:

In America, we value the individual to a fault. In Japan, they value the group to a fault. Both at the cost of the other.

I love my country and I love Japan, but both are far from perfect. Both could learn much from the other.
Click to expand...
That has been my experience with the Japanese as well. In this case their group mentality has helped immensly.
 
There is a flip side to this also. Just before and after Katrina prices for gasoline and other essential items shot through the roof. Some people tried to take advantage of the situation and make a quick buck off of the misery and need of others.

As the article linked to suggests store owners haven’t raised prices and vending machine owners are opening machines to provide drinks to rescue workers.

I guess the analysis going on about this being about an overly individualized American culture also holds true with these examples of price gouging and not just looting.

ChadS
 
ChadS said:
There is a flip side to this also. Just before and after Katrina prices for gasoline and other essential items shot through the roof. Some people tried to take advantage of the situation and make a quick buck off of the misery and need of others.

As the article linked to suggests store owners haven’t raised prices and vending machine owners are opening machines to provide drinks to rescue workers.

I guess the analysis going on about this being about an overly individualized American culture also holds true with these examples of price gouging and not just looting.

ChadS
Click to expand...
We had that during Katrina. Well meaning citizens pryed the doors off vending machines and “distributed” the contents. They did the same with Wal-Marts and electronics stoors too.
 
Rich_Olszewski said:
What is there to loot??
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Say what?:o There are thousands of stores that were not washed away, and had damage from the quake, but people did not loot them, the Japanese have respect for other peoples property. It is absolutely shameful for people to steal and those who try to justify taking from one group and give to another.🤷 Why would any descent Catholic/Christian attempt to justify looting as a solution?😊
 
GratefulDad said:
Say what?:o There are thousands of stores that were not washed away, and had damage from the quake, but people did not loot them, the Japanese have respect for other peoples property.
Click to expand...
Which ought not to say that the crime of theft doesn’t exist in Japan.
It is absolutely shameful for people to steal and those who try to justify taking from one group and give to another.🤷
Click to expand...
Sure. That’s why some are called thieves and some are called receivers of stolen goods.
Why would any descent Catholic/Christian attempt to justify looting as a solution?😊
Click to expand...
I’ve not read of any Catholics calling for the Japanese to go looting.
 
oldcelt said:
I’d ask you to analyze that a bit more in a historic perspective. The culture remains…do you really want it?

John
Click to expand...
Exactly! The same culture of strict adherence to authority is the culture that spawned the depredations committed by the Japanese in the 30s and 40s. It is the same culture that led to Kamakze attacks, suicide charges , the Battan Death March, cannibalism and mass Harri kari. I’ll take the United States culture, looting and all.
 
Because they don’t have any community organizers whipping the people up into a frenzy.
 
SamH said:
We had that during Katrina. Well meaning citizens pryed the doors off vending machines and “distributed” the contents. They did the same with Wal-Marts and electronics stoors too.
Click to expand...
The fact that there was looting after Katrina in no way changes the fact that there was price gouging also.

ChadS
 
GratefulDad said:
The Telegraph: Why is there no looting in Japan?
Ed West, Last updated: March 14th, 2011

blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100079703/why-is-there-no-looting-in-japan/#

It is very sad indeed to see what has happened in Japan but to think of the way so many, many thousands of people acted after Katrina and compair the way the Japanese people are behaving has revealed some very stark things about some communities in America.😊

"Respect for property even in the middle of disaster (Photo: EPA)

The landscape of parts of Japan looks like the aftermath of World War Two; no industrialised country since then has suffered such a death toll. The one tiny, tiny consolation is the extent to which it shows how humanity can rally round in times of adversity, with heroic British rescue teams joining colleagues from the US and elsewhere to fly out.

And solidarity seems especially strong in Japan itself. Perhaps even more impressive than Japan’s technological power is its social strength, with supermarkets cutting prices and vending machine owners giving out free drinks as people work together to survive. Most noticeably of all, there has been no looting, and I’m not the only one curious about this.

This is quite unusual among human cultures, and it’s unlikely it would be the case in Britain. During the 2007 floods in the West Country abandoned cars were broken into and free packs of bottled water were stolen. There was looting in Chile after the earthquake last year – so much so that troops were sent in; in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina saw looting on a shocking scale.

Why do some cultures react to disaster by reverting to everyone for himself, but others – especially the Japanese – display altruism even in adversity?"
Click to expand...
First, how do you know there’s no looting? If stealing food and water out of desperation qualifies as looting, do you really think that homeless and penniless people with no source of safe water and zero modern infrastructure for miles are going to pass up whatever small cache of goods they might find intact out of social convention?

If we’re talking about looting as a criminal venture for profit, what is it you think there is left to loot? A tsunami is nothing at all like a “normal” earthquake or flood. It’s a vast expanse of water, mud, shattered wood and concrete and the contents of buildings which have been pureed and waterlogged. There’s nothing to steal, no way to transport it or store it if you did, and nobody with the means or interest to purchase whatever stolen goods you may have to offer.
 
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