Comment by gbog | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gbog | Hacker News Reader

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Culture have traits, yes, and it's extremely difficult to name them with the words of another culture, and judging them bad or good from another culture is adventurous, except for obvious violations of core human values which I don't think we would find in Japan.

In the first paragraph the author says it is impossible to critique Japan traits. That simply shows that he or she has understood nothing of the Asian way of life. I've been working in a Chinese company since 6 years and never heard any critique or irony or any other form of explicit negative comment, even about competitor products. That is just not how you do it there. There are many other ways to express your personal preferences. If in ten years you don't get this, you just better go back home earlier.

> except for obviously violations of core human values which I don't think we would find in Japan

Yes, we would. The Japanese penal system has a presumption of guilt.

That's not core to me. The litigation system is highly cultural, can be a village assembly before the eldest, a full judiciary system as we have in the West, can be based on Roman law or jurisprudence. Presumption of guilt is just another way.

If you don't consider the presumption of innocence a core human value, what do you?

You can't shorten it like that. It's a complex litigation system were we westerners, when applying our own interpretation grid, see a presumption of guilt.

For the core human values, a good example is the case of a little girl running dangerously near a well, any human except some psychopath will jump on their feet and save her. Here we all share something that can be qualified as universal.

> when applying our own interpretation grid, see a presumption of guilt.

You're arguing that "presumption of guilt" is somehow contextually relative. It's not. If 99% of "trials" result in a conviction, there's an unequivocal presumption of guilt.

>except for obvious violations of core human values

Are you implying the Japanese have non-human values?

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