Hey, look! No loot!

[AsahinaKimi]

By AMY CHAVEZ

People around the world have marveled at the lack of mass-looting in Japan among the survivors of the recent earthquake and tsunami. Many people are still asking: Why was there no mass-looting?

People are undoubtedly comparing the incident in Japan with other natural disasters in the world when people under similar circumstances did loot. And they didn't just loot food or necessities, but big screen TVs and other "must-have" household appliances.

Some plausible reasons for looting are: panic, greed, and because everyone else is doing it. Looting has become the norm, the expected.

One person suggested the Japanese didn't loot because they had more faith in their government to provide for them during a crisis. Hmmm. I doubt it.

Others suggested it is the "wa" mentality, where harmony of the group is put above the individual. Hmmm.

Another person suggested it was somehow related to the fact that the Japanese return lost items — giving an expose on how lost things are most always returned to their owners in Japan, including wallets, cash and umbrellas.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20110326cz.html

[Amerigo Vespucci]

1. Although I'm cautious about "blanket statements," a lot of the article rang true for me...

I have a client who is a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing. His father raised him in a very formal manner, based on The Seven Codes of the Samurai. Three of my former girlfriends were Japanese, one born in the U.S. and two born in Japan. So as an Italian, my first-hand knowledge of Japanese society is based on what I've read and who I know now and have known in the past.

And in the people I've known, things that were taught in childhood were not "suggestions," they became "law."

In the U.S. we tend to operate on "autopiliot"...sure, our parents attempted to instill values in us growing up, but as our lives progressed, what we wanted became more important than what we were told was "right" or "wrong."

And the same thing applies in the U.S....our "society" is nothing more than a collective made up of many different people, and while there may be laws and unwritten codes of conduct that bind us together, willingly or reluctantly, the society can never be greater than the sum of its members.

The highly ordered society in Japan, for some, equals repression. Christopher Seymour was an American writer living and working in Japan when he wrote "Yakuza Diary." He was granted unprecedented access to the top "bosses" in the Japanese underworld. The book is a real eye-opener...yes, the "highly ordered" society is real, but there is also a shadow realm of meth-addicted housewives and kids recruited into organized crime at a ridiculously early age because they couldn;t get into the "right" schools, and as such, the pages of their life had already been written:



http://www.amazon.com/Yakuza-Diary-Doing-Japanese-Underworld/dp/087113604X/

[DoBotherMe]

2. Was there no looting because there was nothing

of value to loot? In New Orleans businesses where items were taken were in neighborhoods that had been evacuated and didn't suffer damage. Also they wouldn't let people get out of New Orleans who were left after the evacuation, forcing them to stay. I don't think the comparison is equal on any level, especially the extent of complete destruction. There are juvenile delinquents and criminals in Japan who would (and may have) taken items from abandoned establishments. IMHO. Dana ; )

[Art_from_Ark]

4. You have to understand the Japanese psyche

First of all, most of the disaster-stricken areas are/were close-knit communities. Stealing from a local business is viewed as a sin against one's friends and neighbors.

And then, there is also a strong sense in Japan that if you find something that is not yours, it is still not yours. I was waiting in line in Tokyo for a bus once, and someone found a bus ticket for my destination (worth about $15). They asked if anyone in the line had lost a ticket, and no one said yes, so the finder just laid it on a post-- and no one claimed it, no one picked it up, not even me (even though I was tempted to, since no one else claimed it).

[pa28]

5. One thing I've noticed in some of the post-disaster photos.

Items of apparent value placed on posts or areas of high visibility so the owners might find and claim them. The social fabric in Japan seems much stronger than in the states.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

3. I was amazed when stationed in Japan while in the Navy,

I was "gifted" cookies, and bottles of wine while waiting for a train or bus by passers by. It was hard to believe these things were happening after what we had done. Kids would politely ask if they could practice english. I traveled to Hiroshima and would just open my wallet and offer it, for the driver to take what ever the fair was, because I didn't speak the language to know the cost. I never felt taken advantage of. I was also able to see the worlds fair there, and had to travel by bus and train to get to it. Just wonderful people. I wish them the best, and am heartbroken over the tragedy playing out there.