Why are the Japanese Holding up so Well?

Holding Up... no Looting

I don't know.
I keep thinking about the older man who lost his wife, his son's wife, his 3 grandchildren in the tsunami. He dove into other work to help other people, to look for their dead. He kept saying, "I don't want to think about it." "yari kiranai, yari kiranai" - which roughly means "I can't deal with it." and he started crying.

About the looting. Gee, everyone outside thinks the Japanese are so impersonal. But my personal feeling is the opposite. They make friends with the store clerks, say hello to them in the morning. The gas station guy who looks out for your car, also remembers what I said to him last time and continues the conversation. I have even started talking to the checkout clerks at a huge supermarket with 25 checkout lanes. Every once in a while, I get her. We say "hello, how are you doing." My local shops ask about Ken, "is he married yet?, where does he live?, what is he doing?" And it is not just me.

Another thing, Japanese don't move around so much. Oh, sure, Tokyo and Osaka businessmen get transferred all over. But in the end, they come back to their one and only house that they have bought. They put down roots, really put down roots.
Children are taught to properly greet others at all times - say hello and good-by to family, friends, teachers. Children who can not do this are viewed as children who need help. One of the first things that mothers teach their little babies to say bye-bye. If I am in the elevator with a baby and if I say, bye-bye when they get off, the mother will help the child to return the greeting or aisatsu. The next thing they learn is to bow their head and say, hello, konichiwa. When they start learning to do that well, all their relatives, grandma, grandpa, parents, etc. etc. praise them highly and make over them. "good baby!!"

But let there be no mistake, there are thieves in Japan: killers, rapists, petty criminals, petty fraud,  etc. etc. and all the other types of crimes you would expect, shake downs in bars and restaurants.  In this area, we used to have a robbery maybe twice a year. Now, we have several a month sometimes. Breaking and Entering.... And Japanese B&E thieves will kill you (if they get the chance)  if you happen to be home when they break in. It seems to be their pattern. They always have a knife, people say. Now, we are having tons of cars stolen, in broad daylight. The police say there are 3 Chinese gangs working in our area. But, you can know that there is a Japanese gang running them.

But all the things you hear about the safety factor is true too. A woman can walk home late at night with no worries. You can lose your wallet and mostly expect to get it back with all the  money in it. When I was working full time, back when I was REALLY BUSY, I thought nothing of catching a train at 12:11 or 12:22 at night. The 12:22 was the last train to make it to my stop, 40 minutes away. Then I would get on my bike, kept in large bike parking building, lit up and lonely at night and ride the 15 minutes home..... But, I wasn't the only one, there were other people around, other woman, but mostly men...


Here are some links that take up this issue:
CNN, the Cafferty File
Why is there no looting in Japan?

An article from the Tulsa World, an AP story
Quake and blossoms: Japan's reminder of mortality

A BBC Article
Why is there no looting in Japan after the earthquake?
Towards the end of the article, there is a link to cases of looting, but these are mostly the acts of a single person, money stolen from banks or shop safes in Tohoku.

But the looting that people are referring to by the common man, who goes out into the street and takes anything he wants, breaks shop windows and takes the contents does not happen in Japan. You just do not see that kind of behavior in Japan.