Japanese people love to gamble whether it be at a pachinko parlor, at an Indian Casino abroad, or with their child’s life. In Japan it is very common to see parents driving around with their kids on their lap. The kids ranging from infant to toddler can often be seen on the drivers lap unbuckled and ready to launch into orbit through the windshield on impact. While navigating Japan’s often narrow roads doesn’t provide enough of a challenge putting your pride and joy in your lap gives the Japanese parents a sense of danger and the resulting feeling of accomplishment they feel upon arriving home safely only reaffirms that this practice is completely acceptable. Today in the Japan Times (story : here) they compiled a report that shows that seat belts can lessen the impact of an accident on the bodies of expecting mothers if they are used appropriately. Now of course Japan is many years behind the rest of the modern world in finding out that seat belts indeed lessen the impact of an accident thus saving lives. While Japan needs to test everything I patiently await the safety testing results of driving around with small kids on your lap. I suspect we will see results of such a test in about 12 years time.

Interestingly enough Japanese people love to be told what to do. Being told what to do and having strict guidelines on how one must conduct their daily activities is essential to a Japanese person’s existence. Whether the rules are dictating how a certain job or task is performed or adhering to society and social norms there must be a procedure in place. When there is a grey area let’s say in the workplace this can turn an otherwise mundane day into a highly stressful situation for the employee in question. It is not uncommon for a customer to have a question that the desk clerk drone doesn’t have an answer for. Thorough training would point to consulting the coveted Company Guide Book. In the event the problem at had is not easily remedied, the company guide book leaves the employee in a sense of bewilderment and leads to a chain reaction of incompetence. This will no doubt lead to the initial employee asking their superior who after sucking his teeth and looking in the same guide book that was devoid of answers before to consult the store manager who will robotically repeat the same behavior. The store manager will now demonstrate his superior management skills and will get on the phone to the district/area office to nip the pesky problem in the bud. This will no doubt lead to the district manager to consult the same guidebook as Employee #1, the supervisor, and store manager and after coming up with no answers will simply reply “It can not be done” Common sense, reasoning, and rational thinking cannot be demonstrated in the handbook so none of these come into play during the handling of the crisis. In Japanese society said “crisis” can happen from the slightest problem or question that the customer poses.

Social Rules: Japanese people also love having rules for how they spend their time outside the office (for some this is a tiny window of time) For the most part Japanese live in harmony with one another and despite whacky fashions or eccentric tastes they rarely deviate from what is expected of them.

The Japanese also really enjoy traveling and this poses a problem because when in other countries or surrounded by foreigners the Japanese forget how to act. The youtube video provided below is just one example of such behavior.

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