The authority of Sccience and Technology in Japan, in relation with the Tohoku Earhquake.

I come from a country with a very complex and emotionally troubling colonial history which destroyed my ancestors` known and respected customs, traditions and practices into oblivion as they are today.   These not just being manners and customs, but also the dating system, the counting method, medicinal practices, agricultural practices and a great many other aspects of life, encroaching into the technological sphere.

  Resultantly most modern science we have today is not a development or extension of the reasoning and logic of my ancestors.  Nor was it a voluntary adaptation as it was in Japan.  But rather a forced idea.  Given this background, though the average Zimbabwean would study, trust and embrace the contents and instructions of period table of elements, willingly take medicine prescribed by a doctor and every now and then read a few journals of science.    They will always do this in agony, seeing them all as foreign ideas and practices, but because of their superiority, they have to swallow the ice and accept them.

  Now in Japan, a country with a very long history of sending its brightest of scholars abroad to learn from other cultures and bring back new ideas and practices to help improve the way of life in Japan.  Today`s modern day science is sort of intertwined in Japan`s history, culture and future as well.  It is not seen as foreign but as part of Japanese identity.  Given the numerous Japanese nationalities who have significantly contributed to medicine and science, it only makes it easy.

  This is very evident in the way that Japanese academics have a very high status in society.  You only have to say that ‘a university professor found that eating bananas only is very good to way to lose weight and stay healthy’, and all the bananas will be sold out the next day.  That could also be the same reason that bureaucrats seem to enjoy a position of power and  influence in the country, that is so because they are the representation of the educated.

  I could see that when the earthquake come, almost all the Japanese took the news the government announced blindly folded, even as they couldn`t understand most of the stuff that was being said. The voice the technocrats that things will be alright, seemed to spread a mood comfort and assurance.   Science, seems to have a high position of authority in Japan, more than it does in my country, where it is always stubbornly challenged and poked.

  The constant interpretations and their subsequent announcements by the authorities, did to a great extent calm the majority of the people.   Obviously, this was not everyone, but I am sure it was to a great extent, the majority of the people.  If a disaster of the same magnitude, had hit some where else not Japan, I am sure that panic alone could have cost a lot more in human life than it did in Japan.

  It is my strong belief that in Japan, Science is seen almost as an absolute authority, to be respected and rarely challenged, at least by the average citizen.