I absolutely agree that India and Japan are great to juxtapose against each other. But having spent a lot of time in both countries, I think this analysis is only partially correct. As a poor country, India has a ethic called “jugaad,” which essentially translates to “make it work however you can.” This leads to very creative solutions to problems, at all levels. Also known as “hacks.” However, if your ONLY ethic is “make it work,” then once it works you’re done. You’ve fulfilled the ethic. “Good enough” is good enough. And everything in India is merely “good enough”… more or less. Japan, on the other hand, has an ethic of honor. Your performance in any given task reflects on your whole lineage. Consequently, almost everything in Japan is excellent. Streets are clean, buildings gleam, and you have to fight to have a bad meal. The basic idea is that you do an outstanding job for the virtue of doing an outstanding job. It’s the call of craftsmanship, independent of audience. However, my read is that this exerts an enormous psychic burden on the Japanese people. When you MUST do everything to an A++ level or you dishonor your ancestors, you end up either doing far less, or being very secretive about your failings. This sense of pressure and hiding is palpable throughout the country, especially once you get out of the cities. I believe it’s contributing to Japan’s crashing birth rate as well. They’re being crushed under their own sense of honor. The takeaway I want everyone to get is, once again, how superior America is in ways that most don’t realize. The majority of people here understand that you do a good job for the sake of doing a good job. There is a wrong way to do things, a right way to do things, and a more right way to do things. You might not realize it, but most people in America instinctively do things the “more right” way. I’m writing this at In N Out right now, with low-wage workers making great food in a clean and safe environment, because they derive at least some joy from doing a good job. This would be impossible in a “make it work” country. India will never have an In N Out. By the same token, that call to a good job is only lightly enforced. We accept a minimum standard of performance, and don’t incriminate the person’s whole family if they fail. We could probably afford to put more pressure on families to disciple their children better. But when someone screws up at their job, even due to incompetence, we don’t curse their grandfathers. Because America has the true Christian ethic called “grace.” Christianity acknowledges we are broken creatures incapable of reaching our full glory on our own. So, via Christ’s excellent sacrifice, God forgives us our sins. Therefore, we forgive. India has no excellence to look up to and embody in that way. Reincarnation is a shallow promise compared to heaven. Similarly, Japan has no God granting demerited favor, aka grace. So they have no grace to give in return. Both these are broken models in different ways. America worked in its superior way because of Christ at its core. That superior way is being threatened because the core is being removed. The heart is being cut out. What will the result be? Who knows. I’d prefer we didn’t find out.
