Japanese show power of patience, stoic discipline amid

triple crises
MANILA, Philippines?Like the super slow-moving classic Japanese Noh drama, the stoic
behavior of the Japanese people as they grappled with the triple crises posed by a killer
earthquake, a tsunami and a radioactive threat puzzled those not familiar with their
culture.
Western media marveled that, amid the ruins in Fukushima, there was no looting or
rioting. Survivors sheltered in evacuation centers politely lined up for water and food
rations.
In Metropolitan Tokyo, people waited patiently for their turn to make telephone calls or
board trains?no pushing, no shoving.
In various evacuation centers, survivors went to work to help themselves, with the
assistance of government and nongovernment organization workers. Doctors, dentists and
barbers, whose clinics and shops had been ravaged, gave free services to fellow
survivors, according to news reports.
Repairmen fixed bicycles for free; local veterinarians donated cages for stressed-out pets;
and high school students either put up signs saying ?Gambarre, Nihon!? (Push on,
Japan!) or did the laundry of evacuees, also for free.
Short on fuel, shuttle buses ferried people from evacuation center to evacuation center,
various accounts said.
To give a semblance of normalcy, survivors walked their dogs while garbage in
evacuation centers was segregated into biodegradable and nondegradable categories.
In the temporary shelters, available physical spaces were ?divided? according to
geographical neighborhood associations, complete with a representative from each
neighborhood who takes up grievances with the proper authorities.
Stoic endurance
This orderliness or harmony (wa in Japanese) amid an unprecedented national emergency
minimizes or prevents open conflicts.
Such conflicts are frowned upon by the Japanese who value their gaman (patience) and
konjo, a Japanese word that combines ?passive, stoic endurance? with ?all-out drive to
accomplish a goal.?

The explanation to this kind of discipline is to be found in the Japanese culture, which
ostracizes people who disturb the fabric of social conformity and who are seen as
wagamama (greedy).
Japanese values are inculcated in the people at an early age.
Power of perseverance
As a graduate student in Japan in the early 1990s, my non-Japanese classmates and I
became familiar with the concept of konjo, which is basically a diligent, quiet and
conscious effort (doryoku) to temper the spirit (seishin) in order to reach a goal, no matter
how big or small.
In the present crisis, the Japanese people have collectively shown the power of patience
and perseverance (gaman), orderliness and harmony (wa), passive, stoic endurance
(konjo) and discipline.
This is the same stoicism and sense of self-sacrifice the Japanese people showed in
surviving atomic bombings and numerous other calamities.
Country first
Three days after the March 11 disasters, I wrote that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan
did not mention the workers bravely battling the developing nuclear crisis in the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in his first nationally televised addressed
following the calamities.
Fueled by gaman and konjo, the workers did not abandon their posts even if it seemed
suicidal to go on. They showed another Japanese trait: putting first their country,
community and group over their individual concerns.
Their family members did not go to the media to complain that their husbands and fathers
were already at risk. They quietly accepted the fact that the workers simply had to
accomplish their task of preventing a full nuclear meltdown regardless of the risks they
faced.
To those who can read and write Japanese, it is interesting to note that the words society
(shakai) and company (kaisha) are represented by two completely similar Japanese
characters.
The web of ?giri?
All of the above does not blur the fact the Japanese society and the Japanese people have
numerous problems such as discrimination, bullying and corruption, both in the political
and business arenas. But there is another forum to ventilate these problems.
Lastly, the polite refusal of the Japanese government to accept assistance during the

equally devastating 1995 Kobe earthquake that killed 6,000 people also baffled the world,
eliciting comments that it stemmed from Japanese arrogance.
The truth is: Japan?s cultural traits emphasize self-reliance, the obligation and duty to
take care of one?s own, and the anxiety of causing trouble to strangers that may strain
social relations.
There is also the fear that a Japanese who receives favors from strangers may be unable
to return the favor someday. Once a Japanese starts receiving favors or gifts, he or she is
caught in the complex web of giri (obligations).
It may surprise the non-Japanese but the ritual of giving and receiving favors, especially
gifts, in Japan is governed by a complicated set of norms.
Hence, the decision of the Japanese government to allow the international community to
ship donations, such as food, water and blankets following the March 11 tragedies, is a
sign that Japan is indeed opening up.
But it can do more so that it will not be accused of being too proud.
(Editor?s Note: Ibarra C. Mateo is a Filipino journalist who worked for the Japanese
Kyodo News agency from 1986 to 1992 and covered the presidency of Corazon C.
Aquino from 1986 to 1992. He is the first Southeast Asian admitted to the Ph.D. in the
Sociology program of the Jesuit-administered Sophia University in Tokyo. Now a
freelance journalist living in Manila, Mateo lived in Tokyo from 1992 to 2002.)