Why is no looting in japan

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Email address required. First Name. Last Name. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice and European users agree to the data transfer policy. The Latest. Breaking down the Jazz vs. These BYU researchers set out to improve flip phones. The nearest Mr Herman gets to suggesting anyone taking advantage of the disaster is when he speculates that a black economy in rationed goods may rise up. The idea that the Japanese are acting in some way against the grain in an emergency situation is challenged by columnist Johann Hari in the UK's Independent.

He says the panicking disaster victim is a myth. He argues that in reality the vast majority of people behave in the aftermath as altruists, saving their fellow human beings and sharing what they have.

He goes on to say the same predictions are made about every disaster. But the opposite is the case. 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.

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

I might add that there is an incentive in Japan to turn things in -- if no one claims the item, you have the rights to it. Thus, you get to feel like a hero for turning it in and have a chance to keeping it legally. When I turned in a wallet one time, the policeman told me that I was entitled to a reward from the owner if he came in to claim it. Unfortunately, the owner was a high school student who didn't have any money in his wallet anyway.

Pasqual Jr. In grade school, lunch is free, but often "spartan," and kids learn to expect and deal with lean times. This unfathomable calamity is one of those times, and "the instilling of that value or attitude seems to be paying off. The Japanese are no strangers to hardship: The easy answer is that the "legendary politeness" of the Japanese people is simply shining through, says Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker , but that's only part of what's happening. Japanese society has been honed over generations into a system "capable of ensuring order and good behavior.