[vjk2005]

I've been studying them for a few years now and will now offer my observations to those interested. The reason why there's no looting in Japan is a result of their uniquely homogeneous population combined with the unique culture that they have been forced to develop as a result of their perilous location, where there's a quake every 5 minutes on average, where tsunamis are so abundant they came up with the name 'tsunami' in the first place, and where there's no dearth of fires and typhoons.

To deal with this high probability of disaster, they have become ants(updated below). What's that? Ants live in a world where disasters many orders of magnitude more than an individual ant can handle, occur multiple times a day - colonies getting crushed by predators, flooded with water from human habitats, food they chance upon is multiple hundred times an individual ant's weight etc etc. To deal with this, they have evolved into the 'superorganism', which is a fancy word for saying every individual will put the community first and themselves second, which enables the whole colony to move and work as if it has -one and the same- mind. So if a colony gets destroyed, there's no looting or in-fighting in ant-colonies... they all move as if they possess the same mind, with the ants who were in-charge of foraging for food run out as a team to find the next suitable space for the colony while the ants in-charge of the colony' larvae protect it for the moment till the time is right to re-locate and so on.

Becoming a superorganism is the only way for the ants to deal with the catastrophe of the magnitude that they face everyday and still ensure the survival of the majority of the colony successfully - they have to put the colony first and the individual second. Unlike the simple minded ants, humans are far more intelligent, hence independent, than ants, making it harder for human societies to function with the kind of 'one-ness' the ant colonies show. But the Japanese, thanks to their largely homogeneous population, are the closest human equivalent to the superorganism.

Being in a country where they know that a disaster of such magnitude is inevitable, they have evolved into a culture of disaster recovery than disaster prevention -"It's not possible to prevent disasters, too numerous, too powerful. So let's focus on recovering from the disasters with the least cost to time, people and resources." They do this by being fast & efficient(you know where JIT, Kaizen come from) and function as if having the same mind (even their language has evolved to support this way of functioning with the strange third-person like way of speaking which I believe is called 気遣い, kidukai or consideration). By trying to become a superorganism, they achieve the same benefits that the ants do - incredibly fast and efficient disaster recovery, but they also show the same side-effects - no looting or in-fighting, fiercely protective of their homogeneity (again, their language has evolved to support this with something called Katakana where non-native words like 'Advanced Cartridge Slot' are turned into pure Japanese sounds - アドバンスカートリッジスロット which is pronounced as adobansukaatorijjisurotto, all native Japanese sounds), clearly visible patterns in the way they work, highly rigid social pecking order (Senpai+Kouhai, gekokujō), outliers will be punished and so on.

This unique culture is why they survived a 'surprise' nuclear attack (emphasis on surprise as it is many orders of magnitude easier to deal with something you know about than it is to deal with something that is happening for the first time in history) and came back to be who they are today. This is all made possible by their homogeneous population and such strategies will fall flat on its face anywhere outside of Japan.

Just my 2 cents.

update: My comparison with the ant-colonies is not meant to belittle the Japanese but to show how their community has evolved similar to the ant-colony superorganism. If tiger communities behaved like a superorganism I'd have used tigers. The focus of my comment is on the 'nature' of ants and not on their physical properties.

俺の国語より日本語上手いんだぜ。大好きっていうレヴェルで住むことじゃねよ。なんで好きな人たちの悪口言うわけ！

[forkandwait]

SInce I just downvoted you, and I hate downvotes without explanation, let me explain: The japanese are no more "ants" than, say, Southeast Asians. You may be correct in saying they have a society that values cooperation and that has developed norms and structures partly in response to common natural disasters. However you then slide into characterizing them as mere insects driven without the dignity of human choice, creativity, or spontaneity. And you come off sounding like a racist (though you are probably a good deal more complex in person).

Plus your post was way too long.

[vjk2005]

Tigers are not known for functioning as a superorganism, that's why I had to go with ants. See this video to know about the power of ants - Ants: Nature's Secret Power - Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwATgYaEku4

In your mind, perhaps ants are 'little' and 'mere insects' but in my mind I see only those parts of them that apply to the discussion at hand.

Let me elaborate.

I never said they are 'no more than ants'. When I said 'they are ants', I meant it to be an intro to the analogy of how their society's functioning has similarities to the superorganism that is the ant colony, thus showing the same behaviors of stronger community, less in-fighting, rigid society and protective nature, which enables them to efficiently handle disasters that would cripple any other normal society, just like how ants can handle their entire colony being destroyed only to rebuild it anew in 2 days.

I also never said anything about them lacking choice, creativity or spontaneity. You will note my references to concepts they have pioneered - JIT, Kaizen, Katakana. Sony was built amidst the ashes of the war in a dilapidated building. There's so many more I could write a book.

Racism is not about -ignoring- differences. Racism is the opposite - recognizing the differences and still treating people the same -despite- the differences. I treat everyone the same.

Comment is long. It's the result of years of observation that started when I was 23 and first came to know that in Japan, the average delay per train throughout the year is a mere 0.4 minutes, including delays caused by typhoons, earthquakes, snowfall, heavy rain, and other natural disasters. It boggled my mind and I set out to learn more about the people who could make this happen. That comment is not meant for everyone but only for those curious about what makes the Japanese do the things they are renowned for.

[alextingle]

I can't believe this 19th Century analysis is getting upvotes.

[rgrieselhuber]

> 俺の国語より日本語上手いんだぜ。大好きっていうレヴェルで住むことじゃねよ。なんで好きな人たちの悪口言うわけ！

KY.