No Looting in Japan

Well, they may not loot but it's still not a culture that has no corruption, terrorism, crime and corporate malfeasance.

It is ironic they obeyed the (working) traffic lights whilst all this chaos was going on.

You can be absolutely certain that until the damage is 99.9% repaired, that every element of Japanese society down to and including the fricking yakuza, will be working 24/7/365 together as a team to rebuild the place.

First thing Rush mentioned on the air today was the lack of looting in Japan. Apparently no shortage of leftist American "journalists" over there looking for stories about looting and coming up empty. That would have to make me feel bad if I was the mayor of some place like new Orleans...

Respect for property even in the middle of disaster (Photo: EPA)
The landscape of parts of Japan looks like the aftermath of World War Two; no industrialised country since then has suffered such a death toll. The one tiny, tiny consolation is the extent to which it shows how humanity can rally round in times of adversity, with heroic British rescue teams joining colleagues from the US and elsewhere to fly out.
And solidarity seems especially strong in Japan itself. Perhaps even more impressive than Japan’s technological power is its social strength, with supermarkets cutting prices and vending machine owners giving out free drinks as people work together to survive. Most noticeably of all, there has been no looting, and I’m not the only one curious about this.
This is quite unusual among human cultures, and it’s unlikely it would be the case in Britain. During the 2007 floods in the West Country abandoned cars were broken into and free packs of bottled water were stolen. There was looting in Chile after the earthquake last year – so much so that troops were sent in; in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina saw looting on a shocking scale.
Why do some cultures react to disaster by reverting to everyone for himself, but others – especially the Japanese – display altruism even in adversity?

Why do some cultures react to disaster by reverting to everyone for himself, but others – especially the Japanese – display altruism even in adversity?

It's also a culture that highly values family and community rather than self-interest.

No-one shall possess a fire-arm or fire-arms or a sword or swords

Easy answer - they have a culture where wealth and possessions are not placed at the highest pinnacle.