Why is there no looting in Japan?

[Artus]

Ah, but note they didn't all park their bikes in the allotted area.

The guy in charge of the bikes is missing.

 

[AlephZero]

You do realize, you're suggesting that people in a disaster zone (New Orleans) with little access to food or water, but an easy means to steal it and no police to intervene were not motivated by their immediate thirst and starvation but were instead motivated by the existence of rich people a thousand miles away, right?

I think this is missing the important question:

"Given little access to food and water, but an easy means to steal it", why did those best able to steal it do so and keep it for themselves, rather than figure out the best way to use it for everybody's benefit?

Instead of that, in the UK we were hearing reports of armed individuals (whether official or not) keeping foreign news reporters from seeing just how disfunctional the situation really was.

On the general topic of wealth (and envy?) a quote from an op/ed piece from the UK Financial Times, 19/20 Feb this year: right-wing political groups in Sweden (yup, they do exist!) regularly complain that the average income after tax in Sweden is less than the average income after tax in Alabama.

Which is true - except that after paying their taxes, every Alabaman doesn't automatically get free schooling to university level, free healthcare for life, and a free old age pension...

 

[nismaratwork]

I think this is missing the important question:

"Given little access to food and water, but an easy means to steal it", why did those best able to steal it do so and keep it for themselves, rather than figure out the best way to use it for everybody's benefit?

Instead of that, in the UK we were hearing reports of armed individuals (whether official or not) keeping foreign news reporters from seeing just how disfunctional the situation really was.

On the general topic of wealth (and envy?) a quote from an op/ed piece from the UK Financial Times, 19/20 Feb this year: right-wing political groups in Sweden (yup, they do exist!) regularly complain that the average income after tax in Sweden is less than the average income after tax in Alabama.

Which is true - except that after paying their taxes, every Alabaman doesn't automatically get free schooling to university level, free healthcare for life, and a free old age pension...

I'd just go back to what Mugs said.

 

[Chi019]

John Derbyshire's preferred explanation:

"Population genetics, as it affects those parts of the nervous system involved in social behavior, together with geography and a long common history, predisposed the Japanese to strong ethnonationalism and social stability in a well-organized and well-supervised hierarchical order. Under premodern conditions this did not preclude intracommunal violence under codes widely understood and enforced; but in the affluent post-WW2 world, with good standards of health and education, and under imposed consensual government following certain highly salutary experiences, these old factors directed the Japanese to an exceptionally high level of nonviolent social cohesion and intense but benign racial-national consciousness."


http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/262162/people-want-know-contd-john-derbyshire

 

[apeiron]

John Derbyshire's preferred explanation:

"Population genetics, as it affects those parts of the nervous system involved in social behavior, together with geography and a long common history, predisposed the Japanese to strong ethnonationalism and social stability in a well-organized and well-supervised hierarchical order. Under premodern conditions this did not preclude intracommunal violence under codes widely understood and enforced; but in the affluent post-WW2 world, with good standards of health and education, and under imposed consensual government following certain highly salutary experiences, these old factors directed the Japanese to an exceptionally high level of nonviolent social cohesion and intense but benign racial-national consciousness."


http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/262162/people-want-know-contd-john-derbyshire

But he doesn't have any evidence that genetics are different does he? It is just speculation.
So how reasonable is it?

As he himself says, Japanese history shows plenty of brutality. So he would be arguing that Japanese are wired to just "follow the herd" in whatever direction it went. If looting broke out, then it would be looting on a heroic scale, he would seem to be suggesting.

So no evidence, and not plausible either. Even if an interesting idea.

On the other hand, a study of Japanese culture does reveal a machinery encouraging social restraint. And then there is the actual research on the effect of income inequality. So genetics comes well down the list of situational influences here. Even the lack of opportunity seems way more a factor to me .

 

[nismaratwork]

In my experience John Derbyshire is an excellent analyst of people (Prime Obsession) and numbers, but not the man to listen to in terms of large-scale cultural analysis.

 

[jobyts]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/16/japan.cultural.order/index.html

At stores across the city, long, straight lines of Japanese tsunami victims have been waiting for rations in the city. No one is directing these lines; they're organized by the people themselves.
At the front, which takes hours to get to in some cases, shoppers are limited to 10 food or beverage items. No complaints, no cheating.

When asked what happens if the city does run out of bottled water supplies, Maki states simply, "What can we do?"

...from the hotel restaurant spooned out hot soup for breakfast. All passers-by were invited to eat. For many, it was their first hot soup since the tsunami.
But what's notable is that the people who lined up for the soup took only one cup. They didn't get back in line for a second cup; that wouldn't be fair.

Shichigo Elementary School in Sendai is now home to hundreds of tsunami victims. In a third-floor classroom, families have self-organized themselves on cardboard boxes and blankets. No one family has a larger space than the other, just as you see at any average family festival. Shoes are not allowed on the blankets in order to maintain sanitary conditions. Food is shared as equally as possible, even if one person eats or drinks a little less in order for everyone to have some sustenance.