Last Updated on 02/06/2011
On a recent trip to Japan, I witnessed how the Japanese maintain a penchant for thinking in terms of the group often above one’s own interests.
The identity belongs to the larger group. Individualism is subordinate to the larger group’s interests. In turn, one’s interests are served best by being a member of a successful, healthy and comfortable group.
This group orientation has recently been on display to the world with the Japanese response to the world’s biggest natural calamity, the 9.0 Richter earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that followed and hit Japan in succession.
An article reports on skilled Japanese retirees and pensioners who have volunteered to go into the Fukushima nuclear plant which has undergone a meltdown in order to do what they can to stabilize the cores and the situation. These elder men know that exposure brings cancer and other hazards and there is a great risk to the bodies of the group, but believe it is better for them to undertake such a mission than younger engineers as the older generation has less years to live.
Is a group orientation above and beyond one’s own better and more validating for all concerned? And can Western values be acclimated to such a shift?
Japanese service Japanese pensioners volunteer to go into the Fukushima power plant
