All the stories I heard about Japan before I went there were true, the good and the weird (I do not find any "the bad" and "the ugly").
I do not want to focus on the weird.
The weird are just words we label something that are outside of our normal customs and ways of doing things.
While it may be weird to us, they are normal to them.
This applies to other countries as well.
I want to focus on the good.
How Japan is a very Islamic countries.
More Islamic than many other Muslim majority countries.
Two things that I noticed and that directly impacted us while we were there.
First the level of cleanliness.
Japan is clean, very clean.
I have heard this before and many people attributed this to the Japanese first world class attitude, discipline and ethics.
But, I was not impressed with Japan cleanliness.
To me, their country is clean because they are rich and they have first world class infrastructure and services.
I have also heard about their first world discipline and ethics towards cleanliness.
However, it was an abstract idea to me, good discipline and ethics towards your environment leads to clean surroundings.
It was a given, nothing to be impressed about, on some level.
However, seeing it in practise, was another thing altogether.
Japan has no public waste bins.
At least, none that we could find.
We looked everywhere to throw our rubbish and we could not find any.
At last, we have to temporarily put them in plastic bags and put them in our bag or leave them in our car.
It was astounding when we noticed this.
No public waste bins in sight anywhere and yet no littering.
No rubbish anywhere.
This fact alone shows you the level of discipline and high ethical values and personal responsibilities that Japanese have towards their environment.
This attitude and behaviour is Islamic.
This is in complete contrast to Malaysia.
Waste bins everywhere and yet rubbish everywhere OUTSIDE the waste bins.
Second, was their integrity, specifically, the integrity of their public officers.
In our case, we encountered a good example of this in their police force.
I was driving, looking for a parking area.
While following the Google map apps, I took the wrong lane and ended up at the taxi waiting area instead of taking another lane further up that led to the public parking lot.
We were stopped by the police officers that were there. After sorting out the language barrier, we told them that we want to park our car and that we took the wrong lane by mistake.
Even though we explained that we did not notice the "No Entry" signboard and that it was a mistake, and that we do not read Japanese, they still issued a ticket.
To them, once they noticed a violation, they have to issue a ticket.
It is their integrity.
They cannot ignore it or excuse a violation.
Ignorance of the law is not an excuse.
They told us so.
This attitude and behaviour is Islamic.
No pleading, no amount of "muka kesian" and certainly no mysterious 2.6 billion Yen can prevent them from carrying out the duties that were entrusted to them.
"Amanah" is a real word to them and they personified the word truly.
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| Japanese police officer issuing a ticket to me for a driving violation. |
Salute to the Japanese.
May their country prosper forever and may their prosperity impacted the world positively.
