Japan Earthquake 2011: Why There's Little Looting Among The Wreckage

Slate :

If your home was hit by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, a tsunami, and radiation from a nuclear power plant, you'd be forgiven for not remaining calm. Yet that's what many Japanese quake victims appear to be doing. People are forming lines outside supermarkets. Life is "particularly orderly," according to PBS. "Japanese discipline rules despite disaster," says a columnist for The Philippine Star.

Anyone who has seen Big Bird in Japan knows the shorthand for Japanese culture: They're so honest and disciplined! They're a collective society! They value the group over the individual! Of course they're not going to steal anything after the most devastating natural disaster of their lifetimes--unlike those undisciplined thieves in post-Katrina New Orleans and post-earthquake Haiti. Even if they're desperate for food, the Japanese will still wait in line for groceries.

There's a circularity to these cultural explanations, says Mark D. West, a professor at University of Michigan Law School: "Why don't Japanese loot? Because it's not in their culture. How is that culture defined? An absence of looting." A better explanation may be structural factors: a robust system of laws that reinforce honesty, a strong police presence, and, ironically, active crime organizations.

Read the whole story: Slate

Comments

[Waikikinme]

11:18 PM on 04/05/2011

First Posted: 03/17/11 01:12 PM ET Updated: 03/23/11 09:09 AM ET

They changed the title from No looting to little looting..
Lots of laughs.

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/2011/03/post-earthquake-looting-in-japan.

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/2011/03/looting-in-japan-yes-its-true-end-of.html

You don't have to like it ...but don't pretend it doesn't exist.

Can you type looting in Kanji? You'll fin 77,000 hits with a lot of personal stories than run counter to this. All the expats over here in Japan are appalled by the "happy face" journalism going on.

[Waikikinme]

09:48 PM on 03/25/2011

This would be unresearched journalism at it's worst.

You should live here (Japan) and read the local news before creating your own.

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/2011/03/post-earthquake-looting-in-japan.html

[wilray]

02:42 AM on 03/21/2011

I think the biggest factor is probably societal expectations. People act in a manner that they are expected to act. I remember how waiting for a bus in Montreal is different from waiting for a bus in any place that I have been in the U.S. I've never seen anyplace where people queue for a bus in the U.S. In the U.S. you mill around, and when the bus arrives everyone attempts to get on. What I saw many years ago in Montreal was different. Basically, the first person at the stop began the queue, and everyone that came later fell in line behind. When the bus arrived people boarded in the order they were in the queue. I was expected to queue, so I did.

Unfortunately, expectations also mean societal pressures. No country commits suicide at the rate of the Japanese. It seems that anything that they feel shame for is a reason to suicide. If they are overextended on their debt, they may suicide. Americans don't suicide for shameful behavior; they get a reality show deal and write a tell all book. That is what is expected.

[dcpilar]

05:45 PM on 03/18/2011

Why is there no looting in Japan? Culture yes, integrety of the Japanese people yes, civilized society, certainly. Even the Japanese organized crime families patroled the towns to make sue no one looted. The Japanese are just far more advanced when it comes to taking care of your society in a time of crisis, than other socities.

Oh, and one more thing... no negros. All you have to do is watch the film clips from hurricane Katrina to understand.

Racist comment... hardly. I'm African-American and I understand my race, at least in America, have a majority that act self-servidly. Read the book Freakcomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephan J Dubner, pay particular attention to chapter 3 and the section on Sudhir Venkatesh starting on page 93

[wilray]

01:54 AM on 03/21/2011

Who cares whether you are AA or not. BTW, Freakonomics is flawed reasoning in more than one case. I actually picked up the book because this young fellow at the bookstore suggested it to me. I plan to get back with him someday to discuss it. The most famous supposition from that book is wrong. They say that a downturn in crime happened just as the babies who were aborted would have come of age. That reasoning is flawed. If it were true, the downturn in crime would have happened over a decade earlier. Contrary to what they might think, the biggest factor in not having unwanted children was not abortion but birth control. The first oral contraceptives arrived over a decade before Roe V. Wade. I kept hoping that at some point this would be addressed in the book. It never was - not even a mention. For them to say that there was a crime drop do to abortions but not even mention a possible effect from oral contraception left me a little more dubious of their work. They should have explained why this would happen. They didn't even address it cursorily. There were other problems with the book. However, this was the most glaring, and it is the conclusion for which the authors are most famous.

[Rory Canfield]

02:13 PM on 03/18/2011

The culture is one reason, the biggest reason is that they as a people, citizens are far more prepared for things than we are. Most people here don't have a disaster plan, Japanese people do. Most people here won't take the advice of the government and leave an area when they are told, Japanese do. Most Japanese have Go Bags by there doors, most people here can't get to the door because of the 50 pairs of shoes blocking the way much less get a Go Bag together.

[JScott]

12:53 PM on 03/18/2011

Let's remember Japanese housing is pretty small and the rooms are sparsely furnished, so for one people don't have a lotta stuff in the first place and those who want to loot where would they put that stuff if their housing in small too? I'll bet there's no McMansions full of multiple big flat screen TV's there and no huge Hummer like SUV's to haul a lotta stuff in either. So it would make sense why they wouldn't loot, where would they put it and how would they haul it?

[theborg]

11:52 AM on 03/18/2011

Gee, why was I put in lockup (pending) simply for listing the WW2 crimes against humanity committed by the 'perfect' nation? The list is historical fact! I didn't make it up.

[Gavin Saunders]

08:40 AM on 03/18/2011

I wonder if the Emperor opened up the palace to folks in need the way the gangsters did?

[jimdman]

11:53 AM on 03/18/2011

Long walk to Tokyo...

[Gavin Saunders]

06:55 PM on 03/18/2011

"One group has even opened its Tokyo offices to displaced Japanese and foreigners who were stranded after the first tremors disabled public transportation."

[Dr Juan]

07:12 AM on 03/18/2011

There would be looting if they bordered with Mexico.

[Michael602]

10:59 PM on 03/18/2011

I think you mean there would be looting if they bordered the United States. How come there was no major looting, killings, or rapes during the 1985 Mexico City earthquake while lawlessness was rampant during Hurricane Katrina?

[Dr Juan]

12:19 PM on 03/19/2011

American TV keeps flashing ads to make us buy buy buy and TV shows exhibit some kind of luxo life style befitting anyone who makes 250,000 plus per year - re-tuning our goals toward big time materialism

Thus the US excels, in fact overachieves, in avarice and geed.

[Steve1976]

10:45 PM on 03/17/2011

Japan is a homogeneous nation.

[InYourWorld]

11:42 AM on 03/18/2011

I think that is large part of it, less tensions by default.

[totaldisbelief]

11:47 AM on 03/18/2011

I think that's why countries like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and others work...the "we are all one people and in this together" thing works...as a People, they share and work in the common interest.

[ruffmama]

10:40 PM on 03/17/2011

hey....I am glad there is no looting....but if there were...I could hardly blame anyone trying to survive. If I were stuck in a hurricane or earthquake ravaged area with my hungry kids and no prospect of help being on the way and there was an abandoned store front with aisles of food just going to waste....mama would be bustin' some windows....I'm just sayin...

[totaldisbelief]

11:50 AM on 03/18/2011

when we see pictures of looters here in America...why are they always dragging Big TVs,furnature, designer clothing off?
There's a big difference between "taking" some supplies to keep you alive and "grabbing" consumer goods you couldn't have before the plate glass windows got broken.

[ruffmama]

01:07 PM on 03/18/2011

absolutely....I am not talking about furniture and electronics....I am talking about food and clothing and necessities to survive...

[Aleks Hunter]

11:59 AM on 03/18/2011

Looting is not trying to survive. It is a knee jerk reaction by some people seeing an opportunity to rob present itself. Also, theft is extremely rare in Japan at any time.

[ruffmama]

10:09 PM on 03/18/2011

i agree.....but yet during Katrina and Haiti...they were considered all in the same. Folks taking food from a destroyed convenience store in NOLA were "looting"....and if there were an intact 7-11 in Japan...they would be doing the same....humans are humans.

[RationalCaliGirl]

10:16 PM on 03/17/2011

. Selective reporting by the mass media. Despite the round-the-clock reporting of the quake by the Japanese mass media, it was difficult to know how representative the reporting was. For instance, there was evident bias by the Japanese media in their focus on positive stories of cooperation, discipline, and perseverance by the victims, as well as on the orderly and effective manner of their rescue, relocation, and care. Meanwhile, eyewitness accounts unfiltered by the Japanese mass media (through phone calls, letters, and visits) painted a less rosy picture of arguments, fistfights, looting, price-gouging, hoarding of merchandise, and other conflicts one would expect in most societies struck by such massive destruction and temporary loss of legal order. Whether or not encouraged by the authorities, Japanese journalists engaged in considerable wishful thinking by reporting the Japanese response to this disaster as uniformly characterized by docility, obedience, and resignation.

http://www­.jpri.org/­publicatio­ns/occasio­nalpapers/­op2.html

[ChicagoBob]

12:00 AM on 03/18/2011

I have read your posts here and frankly, me thinks thou protest too much.

[RationalCaliGirl]

12:12 AM on 03/18/2011

Protest too much about what? That I am not going to blindly believe that a particular culture doesn't behave like all humans do in the face of a disaster? Human beings are the same everywhere. Is this what I am protesting too much about?

[Pod-gers]

08:55 AM on 03/18/2011

What you point out may be true, but may be described as a positive use of media to help ordinary people in lieu of beefed up police force, which is needed to escue victims.

By reporting stories that exemply the desired behavior as ordinary and cultural strenght, the media creates a "buzz" and serves as an influence on people.

Another way of looking at it would be thinging about how our western media glorifies crime. result, lots of copycats, and attention seekers.

Either way, investigative journalism isnt what we need during an ongoing event.

[dead WASP]

10:12 PM on 03/17/2011

No country is perfect, but Japan comes close to perfect on this front.

[factsaboutchina]

09:52 PM on 03/17/2011

The Japanese are a honorable and honest society. That is why.

[Gavin Saunders]

08:43 AM on 03/18/2011

I beg to differ and have experienced otherwise.

[hanoum]

10:33 AM on 03/18/2011

I don't think we are talking about the Yakuza.

[jimdman]

11:46 AM on 03/18/2011

I had someone run after me down the platform to return a wallet I dropped on the train.

[KCFreedom]

08:50 PM on 03/17/2011

When I'm unpacking groceries from my open trunk in my car in front of my own house, I have people drive by looking to loot my trunk, just because it's open.

We are a sick society.

Good for Japan to care about each other. The politest people on earth?