Disaster as a Mirror

The sympathy, support, and solidarity that the people of the world have shown to Japan in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami have been as unprecedented as the disaster itself. Many foreigners in Japan turned down the easy option of returning home, choosing to stay behind to support and encourage their Japanese neighbors.

The growing sense of solidarity that has marked the aftermath of the disaster has served as a vivid reminder of the fact that the world is one and that the Japanese too are citizens of the global village. Even so, a lot of reporting in the foreign media seemed somewhat surprised by the Japanese response to the disaster. Although some of these reports were marked by respect and admiration for Japanese “stoicism,” in others one could discern a tendency to emphasize the exotic and alien nature of the Japanese. If people overseas perceived something “typically Japanese” in Japan’s reaction, this was perhaps due to an implicit tendency in foreign views of Japan to focus on those aspects of the country that make it distinctive.

How Different Responses to the Disaster Revealed National Traits

But the same thing applies the other way around: The reaction of each country to the disaster naturally reflected the defining characteristics of that country and its people. In Germany and France, for example, attention focused more on the impact of the nuclear crisis than on the natural disaster of the earthquake and tsunami. Behind this was the uneasiness felt by many people in these countries about whether their own nuclear industries are really as safe as they had been led to believe. To put it another way, most of Europe is such a “safe” part of the world, free from natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis, that there is an ever-present phobia about any state of affairs that threatens to disturb this peace and security.

In the United States, by contrast, media coverage was marked by frequent criticism of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the Japanese government for their handling of information and the way they disclosed the latest developments to the public. This was typical of the United States, a country in which the free circulation of information is the golden rule of social ethics.

In South Korea and China, warm expressions of sympathy for the Japanese people were a prominent part of media reports, particularly in the days immediately after the disaster. This can be attributed to the sense of closeness and fellow-feeling that existed across East Asia, which made people want to express their sympathy first before reporting the plain facts of the situation.

A major natural disaster like this acts as a mirror—showing a true reflection of both the self and others at the same time.

(Originally written in Japanese on April 25, 2011.)