Calm amid the chaos: A look at Japanese Culture

When natural disasters strike, looting and lawlessness tend to follow. That's what happened following Hurricane Katrina in the United States and after the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. But that's not the picture you'll see in Japan. Instead people wait patiently in lines for hours for limited groceries and gas.

"We're taught that this world is for the people, and the people are what make this world go round," Miho "Mimi" Ujiie, founding president of the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce, explained.

Honor. Loyalty. Brotherly kindness. These are all part of the Japanese culture.

"What can be more giving than life itself," Ujiie said.

Some of Ujiie's family is missing after the tsunami and earthquake. She just heard from her cousin Wednesday morning. Her 70-year-old mother is headed to Canada. But she trusts the Japanese government.

"When I saw the news and they said 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan," Ujiie said, "my first thought was 'Oh they are prepared to deal with this. There will be no looting.'"

The Japanese culture can described as a "collective" one. Ujiie said that people are taught to help each other. Amidst the devastation happening there now, Ujiie says people are willing to die for strangers.

"They do value their lives," she said. "But that doesn't mean they don't want to live. They do value their lives, at the same time they think about others."

People generally trust each other. It is part of that trust, Ujiie says, that allows Japanese families not to feel the pressure to take advantage of a situation.

"So they know, they have trust that the government will rescue them," she said. "The law enforcement agency will rescue them. Somebody will come."

Ujiie says people look out for each other because of the Shinto and Buddhist religious culture, which teach people to co-exist in peace. It is so peaceful that police officers don't even carry guns.

Crime is so low that, according to Ujiie, police officers often go house to house and have tea with families and find out what's going on in that household.

"They have the luxury to do so because people do not commit crime," explained Ujiie. In fact, almost like in days past, they have police officer booths in every township.

"A police officer is there 24/7," Ujiie said. "And when anyone is lost, they can go in there and talk to the police officer."

Instead of guns, police are trained in martial arts, Ujiie said.

There are positives and negatives to each culture Ujiie said. As great as her culture is, there is a downside to having a "collective" culture.

"We are not a country to produce geniuses," Ujiie said. "As much education as we have, we're not equipped to produce the best of the best."

That's because part of their culture teaches their people to suppress the desire to be individualistic and rather embrace a nationalistic — collective approach to life.

e-mail: niyamba@desnews.com