JAPAN is not new to tsunamis. The first recorded one occurred on 28 November 684. The number of tsunamis in Japan totalled 195 over a 1,313-year period (to 1997). On the average, there is a tsunami every 6.73 years, the highest rate in the world.

Figures on the latest disaster are tumbling in with more than 9,000 people dead. More are missing. Many settlements are devastated, the dangers of radioactive materials contaminating drinking water and seafood have been highlighted as the world debates again the safety of nuclear energy.

What has however caught the attention of the world is the stoicism of the Japanese as they go through their pains. There are no reported cases of looting, at least not in the scale witnessed in the United States during the 2oo5 Hurricane Katrina. The 2007 images of people looting motorbikes from a ship in Devon, Britain, still stick to the mind.

Japanese culture has been praised  for the calm with which Japanese are bearing their losses. John Swenson-Wright, a Japan expert at London’s Chatham House think tank, “There is a general sense of social responsibility that is very fundamental to Japan. Part of that is self-regulation on the part of individuals, part of it is a society in which people are very conscious of their reputations in the eyes of their neighbours and colleagues. They are reluctant to do anything that would invite criticism.”

Other views are that popularity of Japan’s distinctive Buddhist and Shinto religions and values of conformity and consensus are virtues dear to Japanese. Can these explain the attitude of Japanese at their darkest hour? Would Nigerians with all our religions have acted the same way?

Since the United States atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, this could be the biggest disaster Japanese are facing. They  may be used to disasters, but how does a country manage a disaster that exceeds all expectations?

The people are important. The emperor’s appeal was quintessentially Japanese.

“I hope from the bottom of my heart that the people will, hand in hand, treat each other with compassion and overcome these difficult times,” Japanese Emperor Akihito, who hardly makes public speeches, said on the day of trouble. “I am deeply hurt by the grievous situation in the affected areas.”

Japanese reactions have stunned Westerners. It is not about a wealthy people and their ways.  We hope Nigerians, some of who expect to profit from others’ misfortunes, learn something from the Japanese.

“It is precisely those bonds of close kinship and connection between people that helps explain why people have not taken advantage of the situation [for ill purposes],” Swenson-Wright said.

As the world rallies round Japan, it is obvious that we are dealing with a country that contains its emotions, including criticisms at a time when the most important thing is to get the people working together for Japan to return to its feet.

It takes a nation – culture, religion, whatever else – for its people to continue to see the need to work for the common good even in the midst of a disaster.