I went for a few drinks with a couple of other backpackers the other day and we had a really interesting conversation about how Japan seems so safe and polite etc compared to other western countries.
Japan seems to have a lower crime rate, store owners seem really polite and really nice about accepting your service, your money. Everyone wants to do the best job that they can in their job hence things are usually good quality. Why is that?
Then we thought; what if, the reason Japan is like the way it is - is because the actual Japanese language facilitates it?
Let me explain.
The Japanese language has so many customary things to say which indicate politeness, respect level, hierarchy. People apologize for the smallest things. They add honourific suffixes and prefixes to demote and promote social standing to make you feel more respected. There are so many things in the language that are all there to maintain something called the "Wa (わ)" or "Harmony". Anything that disrupts that is thoroughly frowned upon in culture. So if you blow your nose really loudly without saying excuse me - people give you evil eyes or something lol.
So now, culturally, people seem to notice much better when their actions affect someone elses. People don't talk loudly on trains, people move out of the way of people in a hurry. Everyone is quick to apologize. It's a language intertwined with a culture that somehow makes the whole place work smoothly and with good Wa. So maybe this has flow on effects to creating lower crime rates and the politeness in everyone I dunno, but it's kinda cool.
Now for a funny side of this. In some ways, politeness has gone into autopilot. In a way being polite becomes so expected that it becomes redundant. Modern society now adopts it in a way which is automatic.
You walk past every shop/eating place now and staff will shout Irasshaimase! Sometimes without even looking up. I even went into a 100yen store the other day and the staff members were just yelling to themselves: "welcome! welcome! please take a look around!" over and over again. It was their job. To make you feel welcome and give you the politeness that is expected of them as an employee.
It's not my video - but this was something like what you see...everywhere
Even when handing money over in a transaction the person will thank you multiple times and mutter a bunch of really fast phrases thanking you for your custom and count your money back to you and thank you again. All fast, and all automatic.
But despite being automatic and somehow redundant, and kinda funny! It is still done today. And it still reinforces the idea of a society which maintains わ "Wa". I know a few people who could learn something or two from living here for sure.
