Why hasn't there been any Looting in Japan?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20110315/cm_theweek/213154
It seems everywhere else in the world when there is a natural disaster there is looting/rioting and the more serious the disaster the more serious the looting and rioting. Even here in the States where we have a decent record on the looting front there was plenty of looting following the Katrina disaster but in Japan, none whatsoever.
True it must be something in their culture that helps, if nothing else there focus on discipline would be a major benefit but there are other cultures that have a similar focus on discipline and I'm not so sure they would show the same results following a similar scale disaster.
Another factor that I think might be relevant which does not seem to have been discussed is the age factor. Looting has very strong negative correlation with age and Japan's median age is the 2nd highest in the world at 44.8 years old (Germany is 1st at 44.9, Italy is 3rd at 43.5 this begs an interesting question, why is it that the 3 "oldest" countries in the world are the 3 Axis countries from WW2? Given the extent to which 2 of them were depopulated during the War would seem to severely restrict their 80+ population)
Is that enough though? Is it their unique particular blend of culture and advanced age that makes them essentially immune to looting or is it something else and is there anything the rest of the world can take from this?
It seems everywhere else in the world when there is a natural disaster there is looting/rioting and the more serious the disaster the more serious the looting and rioting. Even here in the States where we have a decent record on the looting front there was plenty of looting following the Katrina disaster but in Japan, none whatsoever.
True it must be something in their culture that helps, if nothing else there focus on discipline would be a major benefit but there are other cultures that have a similar focus on discipline and I'm not so sure they would show the same results following a similar scale disaster.
Another factor that I think might be relevant which does not seem to have been discussed is the age factor. Looting has very strong negative correlation with age and Japan's median age is the 2nd highest in the world at 44.8 years old (Germany is 1st at 44.9, Italy is 3rd at 43.5 this begs an interesting question, why is it that the 3 "oldest" countries in the world are the 3 Axis countries from WW2? Given the extent to which 2 of them were depopulated during the War would seem to severely restrict their 80+ population)
Is that enough though? Is it their unique particular blend of culture and advanced age that makes them essentially immune to looting or is it something else and is there anything the rest of the world can take from this?