Don’t make it an excuse

I often hear people excusing the way Japanese people behave by saying ‘it’s because we’re an island nation’, as if that holds any truth. New Zealand is also an island nation. Does that mean our culture is the same as Japan’s? No way. That doesn’t mean to say that Japan isn’t at all different. Not at all. It just means that people shouldn’t make excuses for things based off basically nothing. Actually, people probably shouldn’t make excuses at all. They shouldn’t have to. Other people should be understanding enough to take things at face value.

Anyway, one instance of this was that in Japanese schools, students aren’t generally asked to form an opinion, and then when it comes to things like debates, they get offended too easily, and therefore are unwilling to join, or even have debates in the first place. This was put down to Japan having an isolated period during the Edo period (1603-1868). I’m not sure if there is a real connection there, but this seemed like enough for someone to excuse not having debates or other things where you spread your opinion in class. Because of some archaic time in the past. If something like this were enough to stop people from doing something, then we really need to reconsider how we make our decisions.

ENJOYED THIS? HAVE MORE.

MOUNTAINS OF WISDOM

Subscribe to my yamabushi newsletter

RECENT BLOG POSTS

The Heartbeat
black and white book business close up
Better? Or just different?
young troubled woman using laptop at home
If you weren’t to know, you weren’t to know

YAMABUSHI BLOG POSTS

When you really don’t want to work with someone
Mt. Maya seen from the distance
Crossing Honshu in one day
More Shugendo and Stoicism similarities: Hansei Hanzoku

RANDOM POSTS

high angle photo of person going down the stairs
Put life in easy mode
Standing out
Err on the side of action: Five Lessons at 33
Tim Bunting Kiwi Yamabushi

Tim Bunting Kiwi Yamabushi

Get In Touch

Sakata City, Yamagata, Japan 

tim@timbunting.com

Share this:

Like this:

Like Loading...
%d bloggers like this: