Something odd

[megimoo]

For the love of pete its just a comparison between Savages and Non-savages or From the evolved and the Non evolved. Look at any part of a city or country and you tell me if its kept up or not.

You misunderstand the cultural differences.Japan isn't America by any stretch of the imagination .The Japanese have been bred to obey the law and taught from birth to obey family first and then honor authority .Their past social life revolved around worship of their god emperor .

After they were defeated and occupied the emperor,under pressure from MacArthur,
proclaimed that he was a mere mortal not a god. Many of the older Japanese people were never able to adjust to life without a godhead .

Japan smells and looks different than America .For years they had open sewerage in ditches flowing along beside their streets .The Japanese in the past used 'night soil' to fertilize their farmland .They have a very strong social code of honoring and obeying their superiors .the Japanese are scrupulous clean and bathing rituals are observed even in the smallest village with community bathhouses.

[Apache]

Why aren't we hearing about looting in Japan?

The vast scope of destruction for one. Continuing dangers, after shocks, fires, water, power plants and now a freakin' volcano, second. Finally, and this is the biggest one....IT AIN'T L.A.

[RobJohnson]

It was a frequent thing to see a Japanese person pull up to a store, step out of their car leaving it running, go in for 15 minutes, and come out, without a second thought.

I'd love to see somewhere in America I could do that.

I do it all the time. Of course most of the time I lock the doors.

[Starbuck]

I do it all the time. Of course most of the time I lock the doors.

And it's done routinely in places like Minnesota during the winter out in the boondocks. Naively, I asked whether my friend was not afraid someone would steal his car. He looked around at the frozen prairie, then back at me, aghast. "Where the hell would he come from?", he said.

[NJCardFan]

I do it all the time. Of course most of the time I lock the doors.

When I was growing up, we never locked the doors.

[PoliCon]

Honor.

EXACTLY. Their culture does not allow for it.

[RobJohnson]

And it's done routinely in places like Minnesota during the winter out in the boondocks. Naively, I asked whether my friend was not afraid someone would steal his car. He looked around at the frozen prairie, then back at me, aghast. "Where the hell would he come from?", he said.

Did it in the Midwest all the time...with the doors unlocked. Now I would not try this in Las Vegas, but I do it here often enough....

During the cold winters I remember a popular watering hole, everyone went outside to warm up their cars before leaving..no one stole anyone's car..

[Odysseus]

EXACTLY. Their culture does not allow for it.

Yep. An interesting paper on the subject was done a few years ago:

Cultures of Corruption: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets*

Ray Fisman
Edward Miguel
Columbia University and NBER University of California, Berkeley and NBER

First version: March 2006
This version: April 2006

Abstract: Corruption is believed to be a major factor impeding economic development, but the
importance of legal enforcement versus cultural norms in controlling corruption is poorly
understood. To disentangle these two factors, we exploit a natural experiment, the stationing of
thousands of diplomats from around the world in New York City. Diplomatic immunity means
there was essentially zero legal enforcement of diplomatic parking violations, allowing us to
examine the role of cultural norms alone. This generates a revealed preference measure of
corruption based on real-world behavior for government officials all acting in the same setting.
We find tremendous persistence in corruption norms: diplomats from high corruption countries
(based on existing survey-based indices) have significantly more parking violations. In a second
main result, officials from countries that survey evidence indicates have less favorable popular
views of the United States commit significantly more parking violations, providing nonlaboratory
evidence on the role that sentiment and affinity play in economic decision-making.

The countries were ranked in accordance with corruption as correlated by violations per diplomat, from 1-146. Kuwait was the worst offender at number 1, with 246.2 violations per diplomat, with 9 diplomats in the section. Japan placed near the bottom, at 140 out of 146, with 0 violations per diplomat, with 47 diplomats assigned. Out of all of the countries with 0 violations, Japan had the largest number of diplomats.

The study can be found here.

[Rockntractor]

Yep. An interesting paper on the subject was done a few years ago:

Cultures of Corruption: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets*

Ray Fisman
Edward Miguel
Columbia University and NBER University of California, Berkeley and NBER

First version: March 2006
This version: April 2006

Abstract: Corruption is believed to be a major factor impeding economic development, but the
importance of legal enforcement versus cultural norms in controlling corruption is poorly
understood. To disentangle these two factors, we exploit a natural experiment, the stationing of
thousands of diplomats from around the world in New York City. Diplomatic immunity means
there was essentially zero legal enforcement of diplomatic parking violations, allowing us to
examine the role of cultural norms alone. This generates a revealed preference measure of
corruption based on real-world behavior for government officials all acting in the same setting.
We find tremendous persistence in corruption norms: diplomats from high corruption countries
(based on existing survey-based indices) have significantly more parking violations. In a second
main result, officials from countries that survey evidence indicates have less favorable popular
views of the United States commit significantly more parking violations, providing nonlaboratory
evidence on the role that sentiment and affinity play in economic decision-making.

The countries were ranked in accordance with corruption as correlated by violations per diplomat, from 1-146. Kuwait was the worst offender at number 1, with 246.2 violations per diplomat, with 9 diplomats in the section. Japan placed near the bottom, at 140 out of 146, with 0 violations per diplomat, with 47 diplomats assigned. Out of all of the countries with 0 violations, Japan had the largest number of diplomats.

The study can be found here.

It would appear the muzzies are the worst offenders.

[fettpett]

I rarely lock my doors...even my house door when we leave