Modern values, not tradition, kept Japanese public calm
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International commentators have had little but praise for the Japanese public following the series of calamities that struck the nation on March 11.
The orderly queues for relief supplies, prompt and efficient evacuation, and calm in the face of catastrophe contrasted with chaotic scenes following natural disasters elsewhere in the world.
Chinese commentators have frequently contrasted the Japanese behavior with the Chinese public's penchant for rumor and panicbuying. Japan's stoicism has been attributed to the communal nature of Japanese culture, its supposed "samurai spirit," and the discipline and virtue taught to schoolchildren.
Yet this behavior doesn't stem from an unchanging Japanese culture. It results from the current conditions of Japan, which despite frequent claims of national decline remains a safe, trusting society. Japanese crime rates are low, public officials are relatively clean, and a strong social welfare system means that people trust the government to provide for them.
All this contributes to the general credibility of the authorities during disasters and people's willingness to follow government instructions. One would expect the same kind of steady, strong communal values if natural disaster hit similar nations like Sweden.
How can we know the admirable qualities of the Japanese public aren't culturally inherent? Because Japanese history itself provides us with a striking example of a very different postdisaster environment.
The great Kanto earthquake struck Japan on September 1, 1923. While it was a weaker quake than the recent disaster, the epicenter was close to Tokyo, and the nation was far less prepared for disaster than today. Over 140,000 people were killed. Government relief efforts were slow and late in arriving, leaving villagers, who at the time were still living a subsistence lifestyle, with little confidence in the authorities.
At the time, Japan was teetering between liberalism and authoritarianism. If anything, "communal values" and the "samurai spirit" were even more strongly emphasized by government propaganda and public education at the time.
It wasn't yet as grimly militarized a state as it would become in the 1930s, but it was still tied down in its brutal imperial adventure in Korea. Ethnic prejudice against nonJapanese was strong, and after the Kanto earthquake, murderous.
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