Massive quake hits Japan; Tsunami in Pacific, nations on alert

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by firstdown

Only a professor could think up that stupid shit. They use that excuse for the people looting to make it seem ok. The other part of the story is that in the US you get a slap on the hand and in Japan you can spend 3 yrs in jail for just steeling some candy.

No. The Japanese are just a truly gentle people in their homeland. They don't avoid crime because of criminal penalties - they just don't even think about committing crimes to begin with. I lived in Japan for two years and was struck by how different, in a good way, many Japanese folks are from many American folks. I'll bet many Japanese folks do not know the penalties for theft simply because they have never thought about the reality of stealing.

This difference from many Americans begs the question of why many Americans behave like barbarians in many situations where many Japanese folks would behave gently.

I disagree with the professor because she overlooks something in her thesis: while the Japanese are gentle and civilized in their homeland, they can become very violent abroad. The Rape of Nanjing is just one example of what I am talking about. Violence which is literally unthinkable to Japanese folks in Japan becomes a reality to the same Japanese folks in foreign contexts. Therefore, to me any explanation of why Japanese and American cultures are so different must take into account the neo-Confucian group-think which is part of everyday Japanese life.