Reflections from Japan

When my daughter – who studies in Turkey – landed in Tokyo as an exchange student for a semester at Sophia University, my family and I decided to visit Japan as tourists. Spending a couple of week in the country as tourists has been a rewarding experience and there are some reflections about Japan that must be shared.

Almost all embassies across the world charge visa fees. The richest countries are no exception to this practice and some of them charge exorbitant visa fees. But this is not the case with Japan.

It was a pleasant surprise when our daughter got her Japanese visa in Turkey for free. We initially thought that the embassy was being benevolent because she was an exchange student. Later, when we received our visas without having to pay anything to the Japanese embassy in Islamabad, our delight had no bounds. If the job of an embassy is to create goodwill among the people of other nations, can there be a better way to achieve this than through such small but effective gestures?

When you reach Tokyo, the first thing that strikes you is the polite attitude of the airport staff. If you have experienced immigration in some Arab countries or even in some Western countries – what to talk of the US – you will notice a difference in the approach of the immigration staff. All those who lament that the East lags behind because it has failed to learn from the West, should visit Japan and see what the world’s easternmost country has achieved on its own.

There is a strong level of cleanliness. This is not only evident at airports and railway stations but also in private and public places. The cleanliness in these areas could easily put five-star hotels in Pakistan to shame. The use of music in public toilets to drown out unpleasant acoustics is an amusing but useful innovation. For over a week, as we travelled through Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, we didn’t find a single piece of paper or plastic on the streets. The cleaning staff is diligent.

While this may sound rather exaggerated, when my daughter lost her purse while travelling in the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto and reported it to a lost-and-found at the station, the entire staff got involved. After a few frantic calls, we were informed within minutes that it had been found in Osaka and was in safe hands. They gave us a choice to either collect it from Osaka station or pay for the dispatch to our address. Since we were travelling, we decided to collect it from the station on the same day and found that everything was in order.

This was an amazing experience. It not only showed the honesty of the Japanese people but also highlighted the staff’s efficiency. While travelling in public transport, we noticed that the people showed an extraordinary level of respect for other passengers by not talking loudly and keeping their phone on silent mode. Children and the elderly enjoyed preferential treatment everywhere. It was a marvellous sight to see a child travel all alone on public transport or walk the streets without any fear.

The sight of women cycling around towns and cities – even at night – shows the safe environment there. There are almost no instances of inappropriate touching, even in crowded buses and trains. My daughter said that if children and women are safe and independent in a country, that place deserves the title of the world’s strongest country – even if it doesn’t have the best intelligence agency or lacks atomic bombs and submarines. This brings us to a vital question: how did Japan do it?

First, the Japanese are not ashamed of admitting their mistakes. Japan had committed atrocious barbarities during the Second World War. It was at par –if not worse – than Nazi Germany. After occupying Korea in 1910, it went on to brutalise various parts of East Asia. One wonders at the contradictions between the respect enjoyed by women in Japan today and the treatment the Japanese soldiers meted out to women in their occupied lands during the war. How could they change so quickly?

The answer lies in self-criticism and remorse. After the war, the Japanese leaders decided to – or were forced to – renounce their past policies of military aggrandisement. They admitted that their generals and soldiers were acting in complete disregard to human dignity. The military leadership had inculcated a false sense of nationalistic pride among people who were treated as traitors if they disagreed with the military mindset.

The Japanese military leadership was as blind as the leadership of Hitler and Mussolini. During the past seven decades or so, Japanese society has developed a strong anathema to war and weapons.

This shift from a security paradigm to a development design has transformed Japanese society from its core and proves that changing focus from massive military build-up to a hefty human agenda can bring about a metamorphosis within a generation or two. One wishes that a similar change of priorities is seen in South Asia without the atomic fallout that Japan had to go thorough.

The writer holds a PhD from the
University of Birmingham, UK and works
in Islamabad.

Email: Mnazir1964@yahoo.co.uk