Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Japanese are lazy?

Today, I met some of my old friends. They are all medical doctors, but are work at different places each other. It was interesting and fun for me to listen to them about their condition.

In the meeting, we discussed the characteristics of Japanese people. Japanese are considered as industrious in general compared to people in other countries. Rich evidence suggests it, and many Japanese agree with it. However, one of my friends denied this idea, hypothesizing that Japanese are obeying the discipline, or authority’s opinion. He said Japanese are rather lazy unless being supervised.


His idea is a little extreme, but somehow worthy to be considered. Another friend referred an example of professional athletes. Japanese athletes are deemed to conduct long-time exercise regularly. But some athletes moved to the US, such as Major League players, were surprised to the intensity of the training of American professional athletes, according to him. Thus, American athletes are eager to train themselves, even without any obligation, for improving their performance, as well as Japanese.

After all, Japanese is less likely to be autonomous, based on this discussion. Japanese people adhere to the rule of the community they belong to. But it is not a result of their own thoughts, but is derived from their fear of being excluded from the community. Therefore, there are many meaningless rules in Japanese society.

Being autonomous is sometimes tough. I think some Japanese underestimate its value. They criticize the persons who do not obey the rule of the organization. But it is more important to rethink the pros and cons of each rule than to adhere it without any insight.

Japanese are generally obsessive to adhere to the rule. On the other hand, we ignore the rule in many regions. They are paradoxical at a glance. Actually, we are aware of the meaninglessness of excessively strict rules, consciously or unconsciously. Setting a rigid rule and forcing to obey it often damage the creativeness. It is one of the disadvantageous tendency of Japanese, I think.

My past entry: The only reason I am afraid that Japan can hardly improve (1)

My past entry: The only reason I am afraid that Japan can hardly improve (2)

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