A Trusting Society
By GWEN ROBINSON
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信頼社会
財布を落としても中身がそのままで落とし主に戻ってくるような日本では、社会が信頼関係で成り立っているところがある。だが、人を疑わない感覚が、ある種の弊害ももたらしている…と筆者は指摘する。
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Whatever foreigners think about the various aspects
of Japanese society, there's one thing they invariably all admire: the remarkable honesty amongst ordinary people. Perhaps
there is no other country in the world where you can drop your wallet in a busy street or
leave your briefcase on a crowded train and recover it within days, contents intact. I've done both, and both times have
recovered my belongings. I heard recently of an even more gratifying experience. A friend lost his entire month's pay in an unmarked envelope on a crowded
railway platform. He recovered it hours later from the rail station office.
Many
Japanese would not express surprise at these tales ― it's more
normal to recover lost items than not. Consider the
reports of lost items, including jewelry and cash, handed into public offices like koban.
The staggering recovery rate in Japan surely puts
every other country to shame. In London, it's not uncommon to chain your bicycle and come back to find that someone has detached the entire bicycle frame, leaving you only
the wheel and chain!
Almost every expatriate I
know in Tokyo has a lost-and-found miracle tale to
tell. Why do I say "expatriates"? Sadly, because they're
the only ones who seem amazed by such displays of scrupulous honesty. Foreigners are
also the only ones to express surprise at seeing stores
with little or no precautions against shoplifting
and expensive cars, empty and idling in the street, their
doors unlocked, key in the ignition.
I suppose one negative aspect to such grassroots
honesty is that people can be lulled into a childlike state of trust and naivety. After living a
while in Tokyo, I began to feel silly locking my
door. I'd leave my bicycle unlocked. Perhaps this trusting environment makes Japanese tourists easy targets when they travel overseas.
Ironically,
this grassroots-level sense of honesty is possibly to blame for the spread of large-scale corruption at higher levels.
People simply trust too much. Last year's scandal over the massive bribes taken by a top health ministry bureaucrat is a case in
point. Politicians, including former prime ministers, have been accused of corruption on a far larger scale. But politicians have a reputation for unscrupulous tactics; what shocked society most about
the recent scandals is that bureaucrats are supposed to be above the grimy
world of corruption. People trust them.
The recent revelations at least seem to have provoked refreshing new signs of public anger. It's
also encouraging to see citizens' groups demanding explanations from local governments
for their hefty entertainment expenses.
Bureaucracy and academia have always been highly respected sectors in Japanese society. That view is clearly changing. But so, too, is the incidence of theft and petty crime in Japan, which is
rising slowly but steadily.
Could it be a sign that Japan's famed honesty is breaking
down? Not according to police, who often attribute
the increase to the growing presence of
foreigners in Japan. As offensive as it may sound to
foreign ears, the most telling support for that
conclusion comes from the longtime expatriate community in Japan, many of whom can no
longer leave their bicycles unlocked and loudly blame immigrants for it.
Shukan ST: April 4, 1997
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