Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
How Japan does it? The world stands in awe. Japan has just experienced
the earth’s largest earthquake in a highly populated area. Many have lost lives, loved
ones, and personal possessions – it is a true tragedy. But through all this, given
the size of this quake and devastating tsunami, there has been less death and suffering; no
rioting, no looting, story after story of kindness toward strangers, and surprisingly
smart government and corporate responses. How does Japan do it? I believe it is because
their greatest Good is Life. Every person, company and country on earth
makes decisions on the basis of Eight Great Goods. These are universally accepted “good
things”: Life, Stability, Society, Growth, Individuality, Belief, Fairness and Joy. But
everyone has a different prioritization of what they see as good, better and best. The
United States as a nation (and a significant percentage of its people) makes Individuality
the top priority. Singapore emphasizes Growth. China focuses on Stability. Bhutan measures
Gross National Happiness (GNH) instead of GDP. But Japan is the best example of a country
with Life as its national top priority. I’m not sure anyone in Japan’s government
set out to make Life the top priority. More likely, in disagreeing about everything else,
Japan’s parliamentarians found that Life was the one “good” on which they could
all agree. Consequently, laws are consistently passed to ensure that life is preserved above
all else. You see evidence of this everywhere in Japan:
* Japan’s Constitution actually prohibits war
* Japanese health care system ensures long life spans
* Although Wall Street analysts work as long or longer hours than Japanese, Japan’s government
is the only in the world to impose criminal (and civil) penalties for an employee dying
from being overworked. * And, apart from the couple of odd exceptions
(fishing for whales and dolphins – for example), Japan is probably more cognizant of nature
and conservation than any other nation on earth. Its air and water are clean and its
forests well preserved. Japan has been criticized for decades for
slow economic growth – partly brought on by the myriad regulations around safety, construction
standards, and emergency planning for companies. Now,,, we all understand the benefits of Life
being the top priority. Maybe it is time for us – all over the world
– to turn our priorities back to Life rather than more fleeting measures like Growth and
Individuality.