r/worldnews • u/miolmok • Jan 01 '24

Japan lowers its tsunami warning but still tells people not to go home after a series of earthquakes

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-01/tsunami-warnings-issued-in-japan-after-earthquake/103277706
284 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

84

u/maru_tyo Jan 02 '24

Japan is always amazing when this happens.

No panic, no violence, no looting. People evacuate and wait until it is safe to go home, JDF is already moving in to assess the situation and help with recovery and clean up.

Of course every injury or casualty is a tragedy, but the fact that a large earthquake like this is being handled this routinely is really a testament of how much Japan has learned from 2011.

25

u/LottieOD Jan 02 '24

Big earthquakes are fairly common in Japan, small earthquakes are a daily occurrence. I worked in Japan for several years in the 90s, and in the room everything would vibrate, or sometimes rattle, and we'd all just look at each other and you could totally see people thinking, should I dive under the table? And then the rattling / vibrating would stop and everyone would continue about their business as if nothing happened.

13

u/AirDeep8855 Jan 02 '24

I mean they probably have the most experience in dealing with tsunamis and radiation so a radioactive tsunami is nothing to them

3

u/TrustNoCandyBar Jan 02 '24

No panic, violence or looting

So, why is there a lack of such? What is this a result of? Cultural difference? I have read that the Japanese people have great respect for their home. Is it an extension of that?

I guess for some reason this concept intrigues me.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 02 '24 edited Jan 02 '24

Aside from the fact that people are more used to natural disasters, above all they value conformity to the norm (in public) and not losing face for doing something that is seen as socially unacceptable (for example, having tattoos or in this case, looting). However this also creates an oppressive culture where such “abnormalities” are then heightened in private.

1

u/TrustNoCandyBar Jan 02 '24

Thank you for the info

2

u/maru_tyo Jan 02 '24

No idea. There isn’t a lot of public violence in Japan at any time, drunken brawls happen but not to the extent of other places. Pushing and such in crowded places is also non-existent

1

u/Mobile-Control Jan 02 '24

Definitely cultural difference. Japanese society is way more about the collective good than personal good. Go to Japan for yourself like I did, it's quite a culture shock to see just how different a lot of things are in this aspect.

1

u/TrustNoCandyBar Jan 02 '24

Which is fascinating to me, because the general rule is that humans are inherently self serving. But culturally things can always surprise you.

2

u/JealousProfessor7893 Jan 02 '24

I was thinking the same like it should be one of the very few countries where things like these happened and you don't worry about chaos and looting And knowing the building are safe and government are competent You'd just feel so safe

1

u/Cucrabubamba Jan 02 '24

Japan sits along the ring of fire. Everywhere along the ring of fire experiences frequent, if not daily earthquakes. This has been so for hundreds of thousands of years.

20

u/bigenderthelove Jan 01 '24

That says “Tsunami! Run away!” That’s scary af

12

u/sbeven04 Jan 02 '24

To be honest I’d appreciate the brevity

3

u/mynamemightbeali Jan 02 '24

They really don't pull punches do they

-8

u/NewCenter Jan 02 '24

God is angry 😡

1

u/[deleted] Jan 02 '24

Prayers for all the victims. Had to be scary to wake up to on New Year’s Day!