Loophole

I have mentioned two weeks ago or so that a United Nations court has sentenced Japan to stop their whaling, and surprisingly, Japan has agreed to do exactly that.

Well, after a few days it transpired that they were willing to put an end to it only for this season and that they may reevaluate the decision in the future. And now, it turns out that the whaling will be stopped only in the antarctic regions, the Pacific is still wide open and considered happy hunting grounds… Apparently it took the Japanese government two weeks to study the court papers in depth and to find the loophole that says: “Hey, we cannot hunt around Antarctica any more, but when it comes to every other place… ” Welcome to Japan!

The Japanese love bureaucracy and they have following the rules down to an art. In a tea ceremony, for example, every single step, no, every single movement is prescribed and has to be executed just so. Sometimes I feel that no matter what it says, if the rule is written down somewhere or stems from a higher authority, it will be obeyed. I have never seen a Japanese pedestrian cross the road at a red light, not even at 2 am in the morning, when he’s the only one around. The rule says that… and so we follow it. Hence, if the UN sentence says “not around Antarctica”, this is exactly what we do, and nothing else. Interestingly, when there is no written rule, people can be rather flexible. I guess it’s just a way of implementing that old saying: In a bureaucracy it is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission…