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This is something that really surprised me about Japanese culture. I went there in 2008 for a study tour and one of the things that really impressed me is how d

This is something that really surprised me about Japanese culture. I went there in 2008 for a study tour and one of the things that really impressed me is how different their attitude towards shared property and public space is. On numerous occasions I saw things where I thought: wow, in my country (The Netherlands) this would totally get abused, vandalized or stolen. Not that my country is not safe or dirty, just that it is individualized to the extent that people place more value on the well-being of themselves and their stuff than that which they share with others or the public space. Some examples: Vending machines are so ubiquitous in Japan that they are an icon in itself. Trash cans, on the other hand, are not. However, you rarely see trash on the streets. Not because there are exorbitant penalties for this, people simply don't do it. People simply drag their trash along until they get to a place with a trash can (maybe their home or office) and dispose of it there. In crowded areas, there are always plenty of public toilets and they are generally free to use. Not once have I seen one that was dirty or vandalized. At one point, I found myself in a packed bus that had one of those old-fashioned destination "tickers" made out of a roll of paper with the names of all destinations printed on it. When we still had those buses in my country, they were encased in industry-grade steel enclosures, lest people break the thing or change the destination. In Japan, one could just reach out and do just that, yet nobody did. In six week of traveling through Japan, visiting dozens of places and most major cities, I saw one wall that had graffiti on it. This was so special that I took a picture of it. I think it is too easy to "blame" this cultural difference on a "shame" effect, as is often done. I spoke to a lot of Japanese people and my impression is quite different. I would say the major reason why there is so little looting in Japan, is that rather than thinking about their own petty interests first, Japanese consider the quality of the public or shared space to be just as important to their personal well-being. In other words: when western people throw their trash on the floor, they think "Good, I got rid of my trash"; for Japanese people nothing changed, since it is still in "their" space, so they better dispose of it properly. Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert on all things Japanese. I was just there for six weeks and this is my impression, I might very well be totally wrong :)

fanboy123 16y ago
Was surprised at same types of thing the first time I visited. I believe this question is answered by this new york times article below about Japanese lost and founds. I've asked my friends about the phenomena and they attribute it to a sense of duty/routine - normally nobody even thinks twice about turning in a lost item. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEED71131F93BA35752C0A9629C8B63 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEED71131F...
- lurker14 16y ago
  I've lost my wallet quite a few times over the past 10 years in the US, and I've recovered it all but once. Once it came through the mail (missing a single gift card). Today it was waiting for me in Walgreens. I've found wallets and cell phones, and tracked down the owners, too. The US isn't the den of iniquity breathless journos like to pretend it is. I attribute it to a sense of basic human decency that nearly everyone manages to maintain if one isn't suffering from crushing poverty.
donw 16y ago
There's plenty of graffiti, just not in plain sight. Look in the alleys. Regarding the trash, there's two forces at work. One is that there's a rich naturalist tradition here. Japanese love nature, which is why you see so many people enjoying the parks here. Littering goes against that tradition, and the second force at work is that Japanese people really don't buck tradition.
- bluedanieru 16y ago
  Yes, there is plenty of graffiti in Tokyo. (edit: "plenty" is relative, in this case of course)
- mc32 16y ago
  To me, the way they "love" nature, is a bit different form the nature I'm used to. Nature means a weekend walk in the park -meanwhile many riparian areas have simply been paved over. So the love for nature is a little different. It's more "human tamed nature". It's kind of like when humans (yama girls) outnumber trees that you know it's not really nature. Agree with the rest though.
Maxious 16y ago
> Vending machines are so ubiquitous in Japan that they are an icon in itself More pertinent example: Several Japanese vending machine companies build into their machines backdoors to dispence products for free in the case of an emergency http://inventorspot.com/articles/vending_machines_japan_offer_free_drinks_case_emergency_27115 http://inventorspot.com/articles/vending_machines_japan_offe... Compare this to the vending machine in the Computer Science department that is always being probed for new attack vectors to allow free products. On the bright side, we do get the latest machines first ;)
- lurker14 16y ago
  I think you'll find that vending machines in the United States can be unlocked with a key just as easily as vending machines in Japan. The distinction in the inventorspot.com article is that in Japan the keys are made available to the landords/administrators of the property. In the US, I imagine folks would just reuse the axe provided with the fire extinguisher, and not hassle over a key in a time of emergency.
  - mike_esspe 16y ago
    The last sentence reminds me about the scene from Dr. Strangelove: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUAK7t3Lf8s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUAK7t3Lf8s
yason 16y ago
In Japan, one could just reach out and do just that, yet nobody did. What would be the challenge or rule-breaking here? If you can just do it, there's no accomplishment. The more you guard something the more valuable breaking it becomes. Reminds me of the old story of a mainframe operator who, having grown a frustration against users hacking the system to have it shutdown, simply added a suid script accessible to everyone that shut down the machine. The machine stayed online from that point on.
- forensic 16y ago
  Most vandals aren't looking for a challenge. They're looking for something to destroy.
- FooBarWidget 16y ago
  Why does it have to be a challenge? Some people are just jerks and they get their thrill from knowing that they've screwed up some people's journeys.
gaelian 16y ago
My experience of visiting there very much agrees with yours. I particularly remember walking down a dark ally in Kyoto one night, half way down the ally there's this brightly lit vending machine shining like a beacon, in perfect condition, not vandalised, not kicked in, not damaged in any way. I saw many similar examples of this respect for property throughout my time there. This left an impression on me because in my country, a beacon-like vending machine in the middle of a dark ally within a large city would last about one night. There's certainly pros and cons to the Japanese culture, as with any culture I suppose. The attitude that displays its self in the preservation of the the vending machine is one of the pros. But along with it seems to comes an immensely strong pressure to conform and sacrifice. This is the country that produced the Kamikaze[1] and took ritual suicide almost to the level of an art form. 1. I visited the Chiran Peace Museum (http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/museums/chiran/index.htm http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/museums/chiran/inde...) while I was in Japan, I found it fascinating to learn of the history of the Kamikaze and see all the paraphernalia on show. I had only ever seen the classic footage of the Kamikaze flying into US ships. I did not know that they also had defensive Kamikaze who would protect Japanese cities by flying into enemy bombers and also small Kamikaze speed boats.

fanboy123 16y ago

Was surprised at same types of thing the first time I visited. I believe this question is answered by this new york times article below about Japanese lost and founds. I've asked my friends about the phenomena and they attribute it to a sense of duty/routine - normally nobody even thinks twice about turning in a lost item. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEED71131F93BA35752C0A9629C8B63 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEED71131F...

lurker14 16y ago
I've lost my wallet quite a few times over the past 10 years in the US, and I've recovered it all but once. Once it came through the mail (missing a single gift card). Today it was waiting for me in Walgreens. I've found wallets and cell phones, and tracked down the owners, too. The US isn't the den of iniquity breathless journos like to pretend it is. I attribute it to a sense of basic human decency that nearly everyone manages to maintain if one isn't suffering from crushing poverty.

donw 16y ago

There's plenty of graffiti, just not in plain sight. Look in the alleys. Regarding the trash, there's two forces at work. One is that there's a rich naturalist tradition here. Japanese love nature, which is why you see so many people enjoying the parks here. Littering goes against that tradition, and the second force at work is that Japanese people really don't buck tradition.

bluedanieru 16y ago
Yes, there is plenty of graffiti in Tokyo. (edit: "plenty" is relative, in this case of course)
mc32 16y ago
To me, the way they "love" nature, is a bit different form the nature I'm used to. Nature means a weekend walk in the park -meanwhile many riparian areas have simply been paved over. So the love for nature is a little different. It's more "human tamed nature". It's kind of like when humans (yama girls) outnumber trees that you know it's not really nature. Agree with the rest though.

Maxious 16y ago

> Vending machines are so ubiquitous in Japan that they are an icon in itself More pertinent example: Several Japanese vending machine companies build into their machines backdoors to dispence products for free in the case of an emergency http://inventorspot.com/articles/vending_machines_japan_offer_free_drinks_case_emergency_27115 http://inventorspot.com/articles/vending_machines_japan_offe... Compare this to the vending machine in the Computer Science department that is always being probed for new attack vectors to allow free products. On the bright side, we do get the latest machines first ;)

lurker14 16y ago
I think you'll find that vending machines in the United States can be unlocked with a key just as easily as vending machines in Japan. The distinction in the inventorspot.com article is that in Japan the keys are made available to the landords/administrators of the property. In the US, I imagine folks would just reuse the axe provided with the fire extinguisher, and not hassle over a key in a time of emergency.
- mike_esspe 16y ago
  The last sentence reminds me about the scene from Dr. Strangelove: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUAK7t3Lf8s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUAK7t3Lf8s

yason 16y ago

In Japan, one could just reach out and do just that, yet nobody did. What would be the challenge or rule-breaking here? If you can just do it, there's no accomplishment. The more you guard something the more valuable breaking it becomes. Reminds me of the old story of a mainframe operator who, having grown a frustration against users hacking the system to have it shutdown, simply added a suid script accessible to everyone that shut down the machine. The machine stayed online from that point on.

forensic 16y ago
Most vandals aren't looking for a challenge. They're looking for something to destroy.
FooBarWidget 16y ago
Why does it have to be a challenge? Some people are just jerks and they get their thrill from knowing that they've screwed up some people's journeys.

gaelian 16y ago

My experience of visiting there very much agrees with yours. I particularly remember walking down a dark ally in Kyoto one night, half way down the ally there's this brightly lit vending machine shining like a beacon, in perfect condition, not vandalised, not kicked in, not damaged in any way. I saw many similar examples of this respect for property throughout my time there. This left an impression on me because in my country, a beacon-like vending machine in the middle of a dark ally within a large city would last about one night. There's certainly pros and cons to the Japanese culture, as with any culture I suppose. The attitude that displays its self in the preservation of the the vending machine is one of the pros. But along with it seems to comes an immensely strong pressure to conform and sacrifice. This is the country that produced the Kamikaze[1] and took ritual suicide almost to the level of an art form. 1. I visited the Chiran Peace Museum (http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/museums/chiran/index.htm http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/museums/chiran/inde...) while I was in Japan, I found it fascinating to learn of the history of the Kamikaze and see all the paraphernalia on show. I had only ever seen the classic footage of the Kamikaze flying into US ships. I did not know that they also had defensive Kamikaze who would protect Japanese cities by flying into enemy bombers and also small Kamikaze speed boats.