The Secret to Japan’s Success: Perfectionism
A week in Japan and some history made me think of “Japanese Exceptionalism”
I’d read A Brief History of Japan while visiting the island nation, and thought I’d share some of the things I’ve taken away as evidence of what I believe is a “culture of perfectionism.”
All the things I’m going to touch on (trains, cars, toilets, tea, the language, anime/manga) are all products that Japan first imported and then perfected before exporting or consuming them on their own. Let’s run down the list.
Trains
I’ve ridden a handful of high speed trains: the Acela Express in the Northeastern US, the AVE (bird, or spanish high speed) in Spain, and the Shinkansen (new main line) in Japan.
What the Spanish and Japanese train lines have in common is they’re both vastly superior to the American train line. And I guess it’s no surprise, since the American train lines were essentially built by criminals (“robber barons”) and have languished as a form of transportation in the face of the car. (Though I’ll get to cars in a second).
