So, here goes.  I was struck very quickly (as soon as I walked out of the airport to hop on the bus to Osaka) that cars were actually stopping for pedestrians. A major change from China, where the drivers are not exactly malevolent, they just don’t happen to notice pedestrians as being there at all.  Also a big change from Boston, where I spent many years – drivers there definitely are evil.

A second traffic-related thing that was really obvious relates to pedestrians.  Several times I found myself at a crosswalk late at night with absolutely no traffic in sight for blocks.  All the pedestrians stood there waiting for the light to change anyway, refusing to jaywalk as if a lightning bolt from the sky would come down and strike them if they walked out of turn.  This was almost creepy.

Anyway, those kinds of things (there are others as well) suggest a population that follows the rule of law/authority, for whatever historical or cultural reasons.  The fact that this is so different from China makes me wonder how long things will take for attitudes to change here and what will be the impetus for change.

This is an old topic for discussion and relates to enforcement issues, attitudes towards litigation, intellectual property protection, and a variety of other things.  I have written and spoken on the subject before, and I will no doubt do so again many times.  Good to get the Japan comments out of my system, though.