Japan: closest thing to an ideal society

No society is perfect, but I believe that Japan is the closest possible thing we have to an ideal society. Before we dwell on what makes it stands out of all the other society of the world, let's take a look into a few of their negatives. Japanese people work too much, there is a term in Japanese called Karoshi which translates into death by overwork. On average people work more than 10 hours a day and for some, it even extends to 15-16hrs a day and that too without any extra pay. Coming an hour before the official time and leaving 1-2 hours late after office hours is the norm. They have too many over-generalizations and stereotypes against the foreigners thus making friends for an outsider may be a bit tough, but for Japanese people, it's fine because they do everything together. Unlike the west, Japanese adults tend to stay with their parents and families thus building a deeper sense of community and family. Generally, people don't switch jobs because every employer hires you for life, and dining with all the members of the office is quite common, it's more like a gathering every day rather than office lunch. But in recent times, cities like Tokyo have moved a lot towards materialism contrary to their traditional belief of minimalism.

Japan is not limited to anime and high tech market of Tokyo, there is so much more to this wonderful society. To understand Japanese society let's talk about American society first, most parts of Central America follow the cowboy culture, everyone has semis and pistols in their house. An exorbitant amount of Americans doesn't have any trust in their government thus it is impossible to strike down the current weapon laws of the country. Advocates of cowboy culture argue that we don't trust the government thus we keep heavy weapons in order to protect ourselves. Contrary to this, Japan's society and government exist only to serve people. Public transport is so safe in Japan that 6-7 years kids board trains/buses on their own to go to the schools, it is actually preferred by Japanese people to send their kids on their own. To know more about Japan's independent kids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7YrN8Q2PDU&t=2s One thing where we miserably failed as Indians is to teach our progeny about respecting the resources, people, and culture. You'll find many who'll complain about even the best of the things like IIT-B, it's not a productive criticism in any way, it's all about abusing everything around them. We've taken everything for granted and most of us have become incapable of finding any gratitude towards our teachers, friends, society, institutions, or any other thing. Everyone just keeps complaining about how crowded the metro is, how bad their college is, some even keep complaining about how bad/restrictive their parents are. Rarely I see anyone appreciating what they have or showing gratitude for anything in their lives. When we were in schools, we used to steal test tubes, spill chemicals, break furniture just for the sake of fun. We just wanted to damage the school property and not follow any rules. Not following the rules has engrained so deep in our minds that we still look down on people as fools or idiots for properly following traffic rules or any other rule.

Let's talk about things that can only be seen in Japan, you can keep your wallet and phone out in the metro and sleep without worrying about stealing. People will keep money and apology letter in public places if they accidentally break something. People may leave their work in order to help you reach your destination. So, how come these people are so nice? It all starts with their education system, let me throw some light on their school system. Children as young as 5-6 years old clean their schools on daily basis. 

Their meals are prepared in a school mess where every student has a duty to perform. They pick all their food from the mess kitchen, sets up the food stalls on their own, and serve others like we do in Bhandaras. 

After finishing the lunch they maintain a daily record of what is leftover. Everyone has to brush their teeth after the meal including the teacher, every kid tears open the milk's tetra pack so it can be recycled easily, not only that, they even clean those tetra packs and dry them and then submit it to the recycling area. 

Kid going for cleaning the used tetra packs for recycling

Kids of 6th grade are taught to plant, sustain, and harvest crops that are later used by the school kitchen itself. Can you imagine 3-6th graders setting food stalls in class, serving other kids on a regular basis, recycling tetra packs, growing their own food? And to top it all, every step of this process includes a prayer or a thank you note showing gratitude towards everything, from good food to people cooking it. That's how you build an ideal society, where everyone learns to appreciate each other's work and being self-dependent. 

Just imagine how Indian parents will react if they found out someday that their children are asked to clean and do farming in schools, half of them will start protesting against the school. We are not miles away from such a society, we are light-years away from it. In India, every other person is a pseudo-intellectual, they'll do everything apart from working for the society. The only things where we are good at these days is ranting on Twitter, making memes out of everything, and abusing the structure of society and country.