Only in Japan

[Plu]

This sounds a little... off. But still, it is Japan...

//http://metro.co.uk/2013/09/09/japanese-mugging-victim-walks-800-miles-home-rather-than-inconvenience-police-3955596/

[Youssuf Ramadan]

Crikey....  :shock:

[Nonsensei]

My understanding of Japanese society is that they have a caste system much like India, though it isn't very well known. Its possible this guy was from a low cast.

[wolf39us]

holy crap... 11 days!  That's like 85 miles a day!

[Poison Tree]

I think his family was more inconvenienced worrying then the would have been coming to get him.

[Bobbotov]

I spent a lot of time in Japan as part of my job and I speak Japanese. They do not have a caste system per se but they are very sensitive to not causing impositions on others. They are an extremely deferential culture (bowing is customary over hand shaking) and they will go out of their way not to insult or cause embarrassment. For example, in some rare cases,  if the owner of a company causes harm or death  to any of their customers or if the company has done some impropriety it is not unheard of for that owner to commit suicide as an act of taking responsibility. In the West it would be called falling on your sword.

Some Japanese would rather face death than be humiliated. Perhaps this person who was mugged felt humiliated and did not want to explain his plight to anyone else as it would cause great embarrassment.

[Colanth]

So it's less of an inconvenience to his mother to worry herself half to death than it would have been for him to call her, tell her he's okay, but that it's going to take him a while to get home?

Or Japanese mothers don't worry about their children?

Or what?

I think Mommy needs to keep this kid on a much tighter leash.

[wolf39us]

I think Mommy needs to keep this kid on a much tighter leash.

He's 28

[Shiranu]

holy crap... 11 days!  That's like 85 miles a day!

Like someone pointed out in the comments, you have to consider he probably had access to some public transportation which would shorten the trip.

[Bobbotov]

So it's less of an inconvenience to his mother to worry herself half to death than it would have been for him to call her, tell her he's okay, but that it's going to take him a while to get home?

Or Japanese mothers don't worry about their children?

Or what?

Hard to assess his psychology with such little information about him in general. However, I might think that his embarrassment of being robbed may have been his motivation to do what he did as a sort of penance. Very possibly he may have construed being robbed as "his fault," or that he had brought shame to the family. Understand?

As far as his mother is concerned there is a saying in Japanese that goes something like, "a mother will fold her child into the lid of her eye and feel no pain."

As an American I sometimes found the behavior of the Japanese to be inexplicable on occasion. Where Americans would be direct they are circuitous. It can be baffling and causes misunderstandings. For example it is not uncommon for Americans encountering Japanese culture for the first time to not understand that sometimes "Yes," means "No." I can remember a contract negotiation in which the Americans wanted an agreement signed as soon as possible. Well, ASAP is not the Japanese way of doing things as everything has to go through many levels of approval. However, their response to being asking for a quick agreement was, "yes!" This gave the impression that it was a done deal. In fact, it would take several months for the agreement to finally be signed. What they really meant by saying "yes," was "yes" they understood what was being asked and not that they would actually comply.