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

man in suit jacket standing beside projector screen
My biggest pet hate as an interpreter
Back with a vengeance
pexels-photo-5799379.jpeg
Don’t make move until you really have to

YAMABUSHI BLOG POSTS

person writing on notebook
Incremental periodic additions – 100 podcasts!
Local business, local knowledge
Everyone needs a Mt. Chokai

RANDOM POSTS

Flower in Japan in autumn shot by Tim Bunting
High in agreeableness, high in gullibility
Asian Business Course
Beating the resistance: Don’t even think about it, just do it
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: