The Student Room Group

Why is Japan so special?

There have been so many recent disasters - Bangladesh Cyclones, Mexico Floods, Indonesian Mud Volcano, North Korea Floods, etc - that had far more casualties than Japan, yet the media keeps stressing as if this disaster is more important than any other. Prominent celebrities are even holding concerts to raise money for the victims. This is totally fine and the Japanese disaster is tragic but why is Japan so important?

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because japan is a major economic country, and if they "go down", we here in the west go down....

and also we rely on them for lots of things
Haiti got loads of coverage for some reason.
Reply 3
Original post by Nayred
There have been so many recent disasters - Bangladesh Cyclones, Mexico Floods, Indonesian Mud Volcano, North Korea Floods, etc - that had far more casualties than Japan, yet the media keeps stressing as if this disaster is more important than any other. Prominent celebrities are even holding concerts to raise money for the victims. This is totally fine and the Japanese disaster is tragic but why is Japan so important?


The body count is likely to exceed 20k did those other diasters kill so many?
Reply 4
Because Japan came from complete economic ruin after WW2 and became one of the Worlds largest economies and produces some of the best known products in the world which we all need and buy like POKEMON. But seriously stuff like toyota etc
Reply 5
Japan is a first world country?

idunnolol

EDIT: It seems "idunnolol" was lost on some people.
(edited 13 years ago)
That's just the way the media works, tbh.
Japan offers so much to the world!
- Cars
-Computers
- Machines
- New Technologies
- MANGA's :u:
- Animes
- JROCK <3

... Need i say more ?
Reply 8
Because aside from Western Europe, Japan is the only 'race' I deem to be civilised.
Original post by infernalcradle
because japan is a major economic country, and if they "go down", we here in the west go down....

and also we rely on them for lots of things


that and bc of Manga, anime, technology, major car manufacturers, Japan generally being awesome, a pleasant and enjoyable place to live in / visit

and because they provide the world with approximately 73% of its' total weirdness and alternative cultures
We were talking about this at work today, actually, because someone pointed out that 90,000 people died in the Sichuan earthquake and it barely made the 10 O'Clock news after the initial quake. The floods in Pakistan are generally considered to be the worst natural disaster of our generation, but had no where near the coverage of the 2004 Tsunami.

Our thoughts were that people have a particular fear about tsunami, maybe from horror movies. The almost anthropomorphism of the tsunami wave chasing us, and that horrible feeling of impending doom (the clip from 2004 of the person on the beach frozen solid in the face of the oncoming wave still haunts me a little). And perhaps there's also that bit of 'Western centricism'...we identify more with Japanese culture, being affluent, and can 'understand' it better, perhaps? There's also the element of 'sudden' and quick devastation - I think the death toll for the Pakistan floods was in the region of 1500, but over 14 million people were affected...but perhaps this isn't as 'shocking' as dramatic Tsunami footage, which has killed tens of thousands instantly?
Reply 11
Original post by rylit91
Because aside from Western Europe, Japan is the only 'race' I deem to be civilised.


Yes, because the world revolves around your beliefs :rolleyes:
Reply 12
definitely i certainly never heard anything about a less developed country such as Haiti oh wait
Reply 13
Because mainly if those nuclear reactors blow, a lot more countries will be affected...
Because the death toll will be huge and the others (although tragic) don't amount to towns being swept away.
10000 people are presumed dead in one prefecture whilst thousands in other towns are unreachable at the present time and already the official toll is 2000
Reply 15
Possibility of nuclear meltdown maybe?
Because they had thousands of people filming it
Reply 17
Original post by amsie/
Yes, because the world revolves around your beliefs :rolleyes:


Glad you agree :biggrin:
Reply 18
Original post by Aj12
The body count is likely to exceed 20k did those other diasters kill so many?


Bangladeshi Cyclones exceeded 100,000.
Original post by CombineHarvester
Haiti got loads of coverage for some reason.


Because its next to America.

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