My wife is from Japan. While she'd be the first to tell you Japanese society is imperfect in a world of ways, she's also been forever amazed at how many things we take for granted here. As far as her assessment of her life there and how different it is from us, she offers this:
Her father did moderately well, but she lived in the equivalent of a small apartment (in Japan, some are known as mansions). They did not have a huge kitchen. It was more of what we would call an efficiency with a toaster oven and small refrigerator.
Most of her food was steamed, not baked. Treats were Ramen noodles, not twinkies.
They had one bathroom for her entire family (parents and sister).
She went to school six days a week and spent most of Sunday doing homework she was given on those six days. There was no three month summer vacation. You took classes to prepare you for the next school year.
Her family didn't take vacations. It just wasn't part of what her and her friends did. If someone went to Hawaii or Tokyo Disney it was a huge event.
Socializing? Japanese schools, as I keep hearing about, are nothing like here. She used to watch Breakfast Club and Pretty In Pink as a kid (none of these were aired or shown with subtitles like her native films would be here) and wonder what kind of alien society she was looking at.
Nonetheless, when she was five years old a teacher asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up and she told her "an American."
Most Japanese love our culture, but they do not adhere to the parts of it many of the most spoiled and clueless members of our lot do.
Unlike her country, we live in a world where many kids feel that when they turn 17 it is their birthright for their parents to buy them a nice car.
Unlike her country, we live in a world where lawsuits are as common as breathing and theft and thuggery are glorified.
If you want to know why the worst aspects of humanity are not seen in the people of Japan during one of their worst tragedies, look no further than their value system. They are taught that it is disgraceful to be selfish, ugly to boast and family and education are tantamount to their success in this world. Make no mistake. Those bad aspects of society do exist in theirs, but it's not part of the vernacular. It's not respected.
Their is a level of "shame" that keeps the society in check - not shame over miniscule things, but how you respect others and how others feel about you. We feel none of that here. Our country is built on the tenant that the louder and more confident you are - especially when you have NOTHING to back it up - is a virtue.
Packed refrigerators. Sugar snacks galore. Two or three cars per family. Giant backyards. Playdates. Proms. Parties on weekends. Ugly displays of wealth. People on House Hunters sneering at 4000 square foot houses and complaining they're not big enough. The overwhelming belief that YOU are the center of the universe and if you can't have something NOW when you want it (and even when you haven't earned it) you will take it.
That's our society. That's why, during tragedies like Blackouts and other events we see our people showing their worst sides. When someone calls us on this, we criticize them. Tell them how superior we are.
Not the Japanese. They are patient. They are taught to be so. They are handling an event that would unravel our society with grace.
Not only should we be helping them, we should be learning from them.Updated by Verbalpaintball at Thu Mar 17, 2011 at 11:28 AM EDT
Something should be clarified here, if it's not already clear. I'm NOT talking about ALL Americans. I'm ONLY talking about those who take their life here for granted, are spoiled and opinionated without a proper world view and, in general, are our republican friends. That is a party of our SOCIETY. It is glorified and revered by many. But it goes without saying that there are as many angels as devils everywhere in the world.
Most of us here, liberals, have an empathetic, clear-headed perspective on the world and can put ourselves in other's shoes.