Our Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad did the right thing by asking fellow Malaysians to ‘look east’ because the discipline displayed by the Japanese is just surreal!
On 6 September, Hokkaido, Japan was struck by a 6.7-magnitude earthquake that saw over 300 people being injured and at least nine killed. The authorities are still searching for the other 29 people who are missing.
The massive earthquake had disrupted the water supply in many areas and most of the goods in the supermarkets had been sold out, not looted. So, a mini market located in Sapporo, which is not too far away from Hokkaido, offered food and beverage at a discounted price of 100 Yen (approx. RM3.70) to the victims. Some merchants in other countries would’ve jacked up the price instead!
Normally, in other countries, convenience stores or mini marts would have been looted in a few hours; but this is Japan, and in this disciplined country, the weary victims still lined up and bought only what they needed.
A Taiwanese girl living in Japan was amazed when she saw this and decided to take videos of it and uploaded them on Facebook. In the two videos posted, the atmosphere was calm with victims lining up for several hundred metres, starting from inside the shop all the way to the street. Despite the beeline, there were still plenty of goods on the shelves as no one tried to hoard them.
These videos began circulating on social media with many netizens praising how disciplined and well-behaved they were. Even the kids were quietly standing in line!
Here are the videos:
Honestly, we could all take a page from the Japanese’s book especially when taking public transportation such as the buses or trains. We wish the wounded victims a speedy recovery and hopefully, all the victims can rebuild their home soon.
Also read: Team Japan Cleaned Their Locker Room & Left a Thank You Note After Losing World Cup