David Brown
Instructor: Edwin Hostetter
World Religions: East and West REL-223-CL05
3 April 2016
Book Report One: Confucius Lives Next Door
This is a very interesting book. I thought it was kind of dry at times, but overall it was a good book to read. I, myself, have been to almost all of Asia so I was able to relate to parts of the book. I think that the crime rate is directly related to education. I found some information that suggests the while we strive to educated the individual in the west, they tend to educated the society in the east. A lot of crime, in my opinion, is based on how an individual is effected by their community or society. If you educate the society on all matters, not just crime, it makes for better living and people are more inclined to do the next right thing. The crime rates are definitely lower in Japan compared to the United States (Table 1).

Table 1
Here’s a comparison of the frequency of major crimes in the United States and Japan in 1996. This table shows the number of crimes per 100,000 people: | United States | Japan | | Murder | 7.53 | 0.97 | | Robbery | 255.8 | 1.75 | | Rape | 37 | 1.5 | | Arson | 46 | 1 | | Aggravated Assault | 440 | 5.4 | | Burglary | 1,099 | 187 | |
Source: Reid, T. R. Confucius Lives next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us about Living in the West. New York: Random House, 1999. Print. The Asian Miracle is broken down into two types: Economic and Social. The book talks about the social miracle. “The answer I got was that the Asians achieved their social miracle primarily by holding to a set of ethical values – what they call Confucian values or Asian values or, sometimes, the Asian way” (Reid 228). I agree with this quote from the book and what Reid learned while in Japan. There are five Confucian values. Ren (humanity), Yi (justice), Zhi (knowledge), Xin (integrity) and Li (good manners). Being humane is important if we are to get the results as they did in Asia. Humane can be a form of discipline and learning. Justice is important, in my opinion, for crime rates. Without justice, there would be no consequences for a crime committed. Knowledge is key for the education of the society. Integrity tells us that we must stand by our values. Good manners are definitely hard to come by here in the west. It is all about being nice to each other and doing nice things for someone without expecting something in return. Based on these values, I agree with how the Asian social miracle happened but not sure how the time frame. This could have happened at any time and could happen at any time here in the west, but it will take time. What I do now is the Japan was different before World War II. It was a very sexist country. You heard a lot more about geishas. From reading Reid’s book, you don’t hear anything about the sexism. You read about low crime, great education, etc. I think being polite or the value of Li can be good and bad. On one hand, bowing to people or just being polite to each other helps build a society. However, in regards to rules or laws, I think “over politeness” can be a bad thing. If someone is too nice to me in telling me not to do something, I would probably think to myself that it is preferred that I don’t do it but it is ok if I do. When a company holds a ceremony to welcome new employees this could be polite and also enforces integrity. This is one of the things that Reid talks about in this book. “At NEC and hundreds of other companies all over Japan, April 1 is the day for the Nyu-Sha-Shiki, or Entering-the-Company ceremony” (Reid 154). One thing that I learned while visiting Asia, is that if you smoke, it is polite to offer everyone in your group a cigarette even if they don’t smoke. As a smoker, I found this to be odd and maybe expensive. But the fact is that cigarettes are cheaper in Asia then here in the United States and I got used to this custom. Most Asians are scared of Americans and think we should be more like them. “Today’s prosperous and confident Asians are arguing that America and other Western nations need to become more Asian” (Reid 222). It is unfortunate but they get some or all of their information from TV shows that could only show negative aspects of the west. We could also watch shows that only show negative aspects of the east. If you go visit a jail, you will probably only see bad people. Does that mean the entire community or society is bad? I think not. There will always be bad apples in the tree. If you only eat the bad ones, then of course that will leave a bad taste in your mouth. They also think that America is caught in a downward spiral. I think this is true. We have to look at our presidential candidates and how we ostracize our own people. It is no wonder Asian people can have a tendency to ostracize Americans in their countries. I really found reading the chapter Yodobashi No. 6 was informative. Not only did it give me more insight on their education system but also about how some Japanese can treat outsiders or westerners. Reid talks about taibatsu, which is where teacher are known for beating on the students. We could never do anything like that here. This would cause an investigation of child abuse in the United States. He also talked about ijime, which is what we would call bullying here in the west. This has been known to cause suicides both here and in the east. Doryoku which means effort is on almost every classroom wall. Effort sets apart the stents that do well and the ones that don’t. I think this applies in western civilizations as well as the east. I really like how morals are just as important as academics. ‘As he had done so often in our quiet conversations, Matsuda-san had just pointed me to a crucial truth about education in Japan and other Confucian societies: the overlap between academic and moral education” (Reid 143). I am definitely making an effort in my current education at Saint Leo University and plan on doing very well in achieving my goals in school and in life.
“The Chinese have always been fantastic record keepers, and as a result we know a good deal about the births, careers, and deaths of people who lived long before there was written language in other parts of the world” (Reid 91). From my personal experience they are very good record keepers and very organized. When I was travelling to China for work, the clients there would always be sure all record were in order before I departed the United States to come there. When I had jobs in Europe or the United States, I would have to make the clients send me the documents needed. Sometimes, I would not get the documents until I arrived there and maybe not even at all. I can use this skill set for my degree in Logistics. Logistics is a very number, fact driven career and you have to keep detail records of the flow and storage of goods and services.
I really enjoyed the layout of this book from Reid. It started off talking about the Asian miracle. Then on to the chapter comparing some of the similarities with western chains being in the eastern parts of the world. The next chapter did some comparisons on the differences in the civilizations. Chapter Four was about Master Kung Fu-tzu. He was kind of like Jesus to Christianity. The next is about education followed by a chapter on continued education. This is how people enter the workplace and some of the common laws and rules in society. The secret weapon chapter talks about how Japan can continue to thrive. They spend less money unlike western civilizations. They spread the wealth to members of their society and not just making the rich, richer. They also have less layoffs since they don’t lay people off just people the stocks go down or the company is losing money. What I got from the last chapter was the we have too much freedom. Americans are used to everyday crime so it is not that big of a deal to us. While crime in the east carries stricter punishments and therefore there is less crime because their society is educated on the rules and laws. They have less freedom in my opinion. Are we abusing this freedom and taking advantage of the politeness of Japanese people? I have travelled extensively throughout the entire world but I have never lived in another country. I think if I lived in another country, in this case Japan, for quite some time then I would probably get a better personal feel for their beliefs and culture. I have spent more time in the middle east and Muslim countries so I am looking forward to book review two for this course.

Works Cited
Reid, T. R. Confucius Lives next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us about Living in the West. New York: Random House, 1999. Print.