and the truth shall make you free.
What is considered as virtue in Japan is not necessarily considered as such in the world.
One of the examples is a culture of ‘self-depreciation’. In Japan there is a culture of honoring others by lowering yourself and it is considered as virtue in Japan.
1) Not blaming others
As a typical nature of Japanese who have humble attitude, Japanese blame others less than those in other countries.
Even if a problem arises because of the guilt of others, Japanese tend to reflect on themselves, instead of blaming others, and use it as a strength for improving things. Japan has been developing and growing in such a way, by examining itself and changing itself.
One of the reasons why people of other countries tend to blame others more than Japanese do is because they insist that they are right.
However, Japanese tend to have something like a faith that what is right will be revealed some day. Therefore they do not try to clear the doubt or suspicion even if they are misunderstood or falsely accused.
3) Japanese do not do self boasting or self-assertion.
In Japanese culture, it is not considered good to show off your achievement or boast of yourself.
As in the video, Japanese battleship rescued the soldiers in the sinking enemy ship in the Pacific War. Then the captain Kudo called them guests of this ship and treated them with honor and respect.
Captain Kudo, though, never talked about such heroic tale, letting decades pass without telling anybody about.
This shows the good characteristic of Japanese who do not show off nor brag about themselves.
However, information which should be known sometimes remains unknown because of such characteristic.
4) Culture of apology
If one walks on the street and bumps into someone, it is often seen that the one who is bumped into also apologizes. It does not need to be analyzed in so much details, but concerning the percentage of fault, if the other’s fault is 90 % and yours is 10%, the fault lies obviously in the other. However, Japanese tend to think that they want to apologize for the 10 % fault.
Also, there are cases when Japanese apologize for something, even if they are not in the wrong, expecting that the other may open up their hearts, calm their anger, humbling themselves, and reflect on themselves through their apology.
On the contrary, in many cultures, including western nations, apologizing is equal to recognizing your fault and making your position disadvantageous. Therefore it is often seen that they do not admit their fault even if they are in the wrong.
Also, in cultures of China and Korea, they tend to blame others even if they are not in the wrong. In short, a totally different history has been told because of the synergistic effect of both extreme cultures.