Ichiro Suzuki
A week before the opening day of the Paris Olympics, the Japan Gymnastics Association (JGA) announced that Ms. Shoko Miyata, 19, had ‘voluntarily’ withdrew from competition. It was reported that she had allegedly smoke cigarettes, yes cigarettes not weeds, and drank some alcohol beverage while at the National Training Center in Tokyo. She did it a few months before she turns 20, which is drinking and smoking age in Japan. She also violated the JGA’s code of conduct that applies to gymnasts on the national team.
In no other country, minor offense of underage smoking and drinking would have led to withdrawal from the Olympics. Drinking age varies from one country to another. If she did it in France, where 18 is old enough, she wouldn’t have violated any law. Even in Japan, no fine is imposed on under-age drinking and smoking. Public opinions, however, were overwhelmingly in favor of her withdrawal. She violated both the law and the code of conduct. Period. People support harsh punishment on minor offense, probably because such strictness is the basis of the Japanese society. In Japan, even in Tokyo, which is one of the largest cities on earth, streets are clean, trains run punctually, people wait in line in an orderly fashion, passengers ride quietly as opposed to New York City subway trains. Such order is maintained by everyone sticking to a variety of rules, some of which are often unwritten. The Japanese society is one of tight culture. In this society, people are not tolerant on someone who disturbs the order. Being beneficiaries of tight culture, average men and women on the street tend to think “We want this wonderful system going on and we don’t want you to disrupt it, Ms. Miyata, by giving you a special treatment. You have to be punished for what you did.”
The United States represents the polar opposite culture to Japan‘s. It is loose culture that tolerates many things that can’t be done in tight culture. The U.S. drinking age at 21 is higher than Japan’s 20. Olympic athletes’ violation of it, however, wouldn’t end up in giving up their places in on team. Smoking marijuana in states where it is not legal wouldn’t lead to severe punishments, either.
This is not to say which culture is better, loose or tight. They are simply different based on long tradition in the society. Tight culture requires stricter enforcement of rules and laws than loose culture, to keep the society going. In response to people who seek safety in tight culture, regulations become heavier, leading to greater cost of doing business in addition to making some people feel suffocating. This culture doesn’t promote innovation.
As opposed to average people on the street, a number of well known men and women from a variety of fields called punishment on Shoko Miyata excessive. Unlike average people, they are capable of standing on their own feet, making a living much less dependent on the society of tight culture. They are independent of and not beneficiaries of the system.
From a different perspective, differences of opinions on Ms. Miyata can be explained by universal versus situational law enforcement. The Financial Times’ columnist Gillian Tett recently wrote that diplomats in New York City from some part of the world tend to accumulate parking tickets and leaving them unpaid as opposed to diplomats from other parts not receiving tickets in the first place and paying them immediately if they get ones. Diplomats from Latin countries, in Southern Europe and Central/ South America tend to be lax while ones from Northern Europe, Japan or Singapore take parking tickets seriously. Latin diplomats tend to consider themselves special. This is situational enforcement of law. If Ms. Miyata was exempted from punishments, this was a case of situational enforcement. Japan, however, belongs to the group that prefers universal enforcement that refuses to give exceptions to anyone. Gilian Tett adds that the 45th President Donald Trump is a believer in situational enforcement of law as he insists that he can’t be tried on any conduct he did while he was in the White House.
About the author: Mr. Suzuki is a retired banker based in Tokyo, Japan.
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