Why so little looting in Japan?

[ttjereth]

Why so little looting in Japan? - Slate.com


On the other hand...

250 Cases of Looting Reported in Miyagi - Yahoo.jp News (Japanese)
Google Translate


(Thanks ttjereth.)

The obvious inference here is that they needed to get the money for all that aid from somewhere.

Does Jake Adelstein ever write actual negative stuff about the yakuza? I mean they are still thieves and murderers right?

[Yokohammer]

Does Jake Adelstein ever write actual negative stuff about the yakuza? I mean they are still thieves and murderers right?

I'm beginning to suspect that they may have made him an offer that he couldn't refuse.

[cstaylor]

I'm beginning to suspect that they may have made him an offer that he couldn't refuse.

LOL! Quisling Author FTW.

[canman]

We have had some cases of looting here in Hachinohe. Of course the most looted item is gasoline and kerosene, which makes sense in a way. But there were houses that families had to evacuate from, and when they returned to their houses, the came back to stolen bank books, money, jewelry and other things.

[Yokohammer]

[matsuki]

[FG Lurker]

Why mess with dead bodies? If they were smart, they'd rent a truck and start loading it up with all those mobile ATM machines in the convenience stores.

Don't go giving these thieving FGs any ideas now...

[IkemenTommy]

Don't go giving these thieving FGs any ideas now...

Don't worry.. the ones that do (Engrish teachers in particular) have already fled the country because they are big bunch of vaginas.

[6810]

Don't worry.. the ones that do (Engrish teachers in particular) have already fled the country because they are big bunch of vaginas.

Bitch, don't speak ill of the 'ginas. You hear me? Some of my best friends are vaginas, and to equate radiation fleeing douchebaggery with with the silky delight that is... well, it's a duellable offense, sir!

Pshaw, vaginas indeed.

[IkemenTommy]

Bitch, don't speak ill of the 'ginas.

Don't tell me you squat when you pee and you consider cosmo as your favorite drink

[Yokohammer]

Don't worry.. the ones that do (Engrish teachers in particular) have already fled the country because they are big bunch of vaginas.

I didn't know they came in bunches!
I'm gonna have to go back to the super to check ...

[waruta]

All right...who was it?
$500,000 vanishes from tsunami-ravaged bank

[IkemenTommy]

All right...who was it?
$500,000 vanishes from tsunami-ravaged bank

The March 11 tsunami washed over the Shinkin Bank, like much else in Kesennuma, and police said between the wave's power and the ensuing power outages, the vault came open.

More like Stinkin Bank..

Hell, rebuild your home and buy tons of toilet paper too with that money.. ne

[Greji]

All right...who was it?
$500,000 vanishes from tsunami-ravaged bank

Somebody saw a bald headed fg drive away from the bank in a Fugu with bank notes blowing out the back window (not that it would point a anyone we know.).......

[Blah Pete]

A mini sledge hammer and a pry bar should be part of every FGs emergency kit. Those cash machines aren't going to pry themselves open.

[Taro Toporific]

Somebody saw a bald headed fg drive away from the bank in a Fugu with bank notes blowing out the back window (not that it would point a anyone we know.)...

It's wasn't me: I drive a Fuga.

[hundefar]

[YT]018lyN_sztM[/YT]

[Marked Trail]

[Mike Oxlong]

[SIZE="4"]Are the Japanese different?[/SIZE]

As the nuclear crisis mounted in Japan after the one-two punch of earthquake and tsunami, announcements on the public address system at Go Watanabe's Tokyo office last week became increasingly strident.

"The first day it was, 'You may go home'," said Watanabe, a 33-year-old employee at Sumitomo Corp. "On the second day it was, 'You better go home'. By the third day, it was, 'Go home'." Yet Watanabe stayed at the office as late as 2 a.m. each night to finish reports as the March end of the fiscal year loomed.

Watanabe's diligence at his desk in the face of national crisis exemplifies Japan's legendary work ethic. (After all, this is a nation recognizes karoshi -- death by overwork -- as a legal cause of death.) But the three-fold disasters facing the world's third largest economy has put the global spotlight on Japan and its culture, for good and for ill. Underlining much of the coverage seems to be this question: Are the Japanese different?

"The Japanese love to say it themselves -- this Nihonjinron thing, talking about 'we Japanese'," said historian John Dower, the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II." "The Japanese are always stressing their uniqueness ... but the very topic is fraught with peril."

Much has been made of the "orderliness" following the quake. The nation's extraordinary readiness for earthquakes and tsunamis has helped keep the death toll of the March 11 disaster -- with 10,035 people confirmed dead, 17, 443 missing as of Friday -- from being far worse. But the ongoing saga at the Fukushima nuclear plant -- and the paucity of accurate, timely information even from the highest levels of government -- points to the Japanese cultural propensity for vague language and reluctance to share damaging information.

Moreover, Japan watchers wonder if the event will catalyze the nation into action -- as extreme events have done so often in Japanese modern history. Aside from the immediate disaster, the country has to tackle some entrenched problems; moribund politics, a huge public debt and an aging population that has seen their nation rise phoenix-like from the ashes of World War II only to slip into a decades-long economic decline.

"Well, the calmness is, of course, an enormous strength in a crisis like this. It's sometimes a problem in the recession, trying to develop a sense of urgency," Sony CEO Howard Stringer told CNN's Fareed Zakaria this week. "And a little part of me says this will now have a sense of urgency and this will kick-start the Japanese economy in ways that maybe nothing else would.

"It's one of the great strengths of the Japanese people -- which one tends to forget because it's a consensus society -- and that can drive you a little crazy every so often and you think, 'Come on, let's get going'," Stringer said...

[Greji]

It's wasn't me: I drive a Fuga.

That's the same fug(U) I was referring to, but I was trying to be polite....

[Yokohammer]

A bit of disheartening info about this.

One of our friends runs a glass/window outlet in town, and right now they are extremely busy fitting new windows to houses in the Arahama/Yamamoto area that haven't been completely destroyed. The reason is not to keep the weather out ... the houses are already soaked to the core and full of mud and debris ... but rather to keep out thieves. Apparently there is lots of looting going on, so don't let the "Japanese people would never do something like that" Nihonjin-ron fantasy fool you.

There are heartless bastards here who will happily steal the meager remnants of other people's lives, just as there are in any other country. Disgusting.

[cstaylor]

"Japanese people would never do something like that" Nihonjin-ron fantasy fool you.

If Japanese would never do something like that, there would be no need for the draconian 3/10/21/indefinite detention policies used nationwide by the police.

Now you can see what Japan would turn into without the strong arm of the law suppressing the populace.

[Greji]

There are heartless bastards here who will happily steal the meager remnants of other people's lives, just as there are in any other country. Disgusting.

The J-TV will probably explain as Looters only have three seasons.....

[Jack]

There are heartless bastards here who will happily steal the meager remnants of other people's lives, just as there are in any other country. Disgusting.

I think a bit exagerated. During Katrenina and in Haiti you did not have to look far to see looters. It was being done in broad daylight and in front of the cameras. The fact that no such thing was recorded in Japan by the foreign press is quite telling.

Look, I'm not there to see it first hand and I cannot imagine putting myself in the shoes of someone who just got wiped out by a tsunami and probably lost many friends and family. I can't imagine what goes in someone's mind after such a shock. Do I call that looting in the same sense as emptying the warehouse of a Best Buy? Not sure.

[Yokohammer]

I think a bit exagerated. During Katrenina and in Haiti you did not have to look far to see looters. It was being done in broad daylight and in front of the cameras. The fact that no such thing was recorded in Japan by the foreign press is quite telling.

Look, I'm not there to see it first hand and I cannot imagine putting myself in the shoes of someone who just got wiped out by a tsunami and probably lost many friends and family. I can't imagine what goes in someone's mind after such a shock. Do I call that looting in the same sense as emptying the warehouse of a Best Buy? Not sure.

I did imply that it's not a Japan-only problem, It would happen anywhere. But the real point was to emphasize that in spite of the reportage it does happen, and is happening here too. A heads-up for the people who are swallowing the "there is no looting in Japan" tripe.

The thing that upsets me about this is that the looters are taking advantage of people who's homes have been partially destroyed and are temporarily sheltering somewhere else. It's a very Japanese way to go about it ... no confrontation ... but it's still heartless and disgusting. Traitorous and cowardly too.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Perhaps because I've been in Japan for way too long, which explains why I feel this way, but I'd really like to give my next-door neighbor's wife a good, long loot.

[Iraira]

I haven't been up in the disaster area, so yeah, I have no clue as to whether (or the extent of any) looting is going on, but there are two issues with looting. One is people looking though destroyed homes for food. I got no problem with that. Two is people looking through destroyed homes for valuables they can later sell. I got problems with that.
I'm not sure whether there are starving folks up in the hardest hit areas. Someone making off with a smoked ham from a destroyed and vacated house to feed his/her family...free pass for them. Someone making off with a somehow undamaged TV to line their pockets...free bullet between their eyes.

[matsuki]

Perhaps because I've been in Japan for way too long, which explains why I feel this way, but I'd really like to give my next-door neighbor's wife a good, long loot.

Weren't there quite a bit of rape/murder reports after the Kobe quake?

[Taro Toporific]

[SIZE="6"]Looters beware![/SIZE]

Photo was taken on August 7, 2011 during Safecast.org's Radiation Measurement Trip in the Deadzone Fukishima.
Via seanbonner's flickr

[leitmotiv]

From here, of course.