Page 38 - WDT Winter 2018 japan

PEOPLE

Almost everyone we have talked with that
has visited Japan mentions their courtesy
and honesty. People here take their jobs
Aseriously whether they are desk clerks or
traffic cops who always have a smile and a bow for you as
they make sure you get to the other side of the street safely.
The temples, shrines in every city and village gave us
a clue to the source of these values. They were the material
manifestations of the philosophies and practices of Bud-
dhism and Zen, Confucianism, and Shinto religions. Their
adoption by the samurai culture as a philosophy for living set
an example for the general population.
The importance of that philosophy was documented
by Jesuit leader St. Francis Xavier (1506–1552) in a report on
Japanese society sent to Rome. “In the first place, the nation
with which we have had to do here surpasses in goodness
any of the nations lately discovered. I think that among
barbarous nations there can be none that has more natural
goodness than the Japanese. They are of a kindly disposition,
not at all given to cheating, wonderfully desirous of honor
and rank. Honour with them is placed above everything else.
There are a great many poor among them, but poverty is
not a disgrace to anyone. There is one thing among them of
which I hardly know whether it is practiced anywhere among
Christians. The nobles, however poor they may be, receive
the same honor from the rest as if they were rich.”
We saw that same attitude in Japan as we traveled.
Japanese, young and old, seem to have an ingrained sense
of honor, politeness, respect, and helpfulness. We were
most impressed by the young people who worked in the
McDonalds and 7-Elevens who treated us as if we were a
well-heeled regular at Nordstrom. In one town, a shopkeeper
left her store to walk us to a restaurant we were struggling to
find. In train stations, folks with limited English would try to
help us with ticket purchases or train schedules. Of course,
there were a few exceptions, but on the whole, we felt very
good about the people we met everywhere in the country.

38 WDT MAGAZINE WINTER 2018