are the Japanese different?

Not that I fully agree with all the viewpoints expressed, but this article is a must read under the current circumstances (and beyond).

The text, however, neglects a key point that is behind many of Japan's current woes and troubles: the Japanese hypersensitivity to criticism (esp. when it comes from foreigners) as well as their ingrained inability to gracefully deal with it and act accordingly.

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Are the Japanese different?
By Kevin Voigt, CNN
March 25, 2011

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/25/Japan.quake.culture/index.html?hpt=C1

Excerpt:

The Fukushima plant problems points toward Japan's "information problem ... the unwillingness to openly discuss bad news and to play down, disguise or even lie about unfortunate or embarrassing news," said Alex Kerr, an American who has spent much of his life in Japan. "That has been absolutely endemic in the nuclear industry here, and in other domestic industries.

"There's been a lot in the international press at this point at the lack of clarity (in the Fukushima situation),"said Kerr, a cultural critic and author of Lost Japan and Dogs and Demons, the latter which focused in part on Japan's nuclear problems. "What they may not be aware is it's endemic and built into the system -- they simply know no other way."

That sentiment can even be found in Japanese art. "They talk about the shinkei of Mount Fuji," Kerr said. "This is the perfect shape that Mount Fuji should have, the truth, an ideal -- not the actual look of Mount Fuji."

[emphases and links are mine]