Is it racist to believe that Japanese genetically more industrious and intelligent?

Question

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed out of existense, in 60 years they reconstructed everything. If the same thing happened in someother place they would never be able to accomplish such a feat. Is this not because of their Genes.

Answer 1

The key word is "reconstructed." While occupied by the US, Japan was given a new constitution, new government and was able to rebuild their plants. The bombing helped as new plants could be built rather then converting or upgrading obsolete ones.

Germany (West) achieved a similar economic accomplishment. However, after the n**i race claims, no one would dare to suggest the Germans were genetically superior.

Much of the reason for Japanese productivity was that they were able to take advances made elsewhere and profit from them. The Japanese culture places emphasis on loyalty and working for the good of the company. It's cultural not genetic.

Answer 2

Before you write it off to genetics, you have to consider the culture of Japan.  Culture evolves just as people do.  The Japanese, through a progressive, collectively-oriented set of social policies, were able to rebuild their country after so much damage was inflicted upon it.  That same rigor runs through their education system, which sees children in school almost every day of the week for most of the year.  People in Japan are exceedingly well educated as a result.  Honestly, yes, most Japanese that I have met here are highly intelligent and inquisitive, but I don't think it's genetic.

Check this out:  the same policies that both rebuilt the country and created unprecedented productivity are shooting them in the foot because, unlike the US government, they never built it into their system to be able to stop them.  These days, Japan is spending trillions of yen annually keeping thousands of pork barrell construction projects afloat, because they never planned for how to stop the rebuilding effort.  Their landscape gets more ravaged and concreted over every day.  I would hardly call that intellectually superior.

Answer 3

are you kidding? without the americans, china and korea wouldve wiped you off the face of the map after ww2

Answer 4

A lot of the answers here oppose genes and culture; as if you have one and not the other.

Asians do score a bit higher on the spatial parts of IQ tests and have a industrious work ethic in their culture.

See? It dies not have to be nature vs nurture. In the real world, the world devoid of human ideology, it is nature VIA nurture!

Answer 5

Is it a matter of genetics or a matter of willingness to work hard, have good ethics and good education, the later options are more objective and seem to be true.

Answer 6

no, it's not. they are smart. they come to america and take advantage of what they are given. they feel that they should be intelligent to make up for what racists will say. i admire them.

****not meant to offend anyone at all.

Answer 7

I know a japanese person that is as bright as a doorknob, not all are smart.

Answer 8

It is racist to believe that, because you said genetically. That presupposes everyone else is less industrious and intelligent.

I bet if you looked around the US you would find that most 3rd generation Japanese immigrants who have completely integrated themselves into mainstream society don't seem more industrious or intelligent when compared to everyone else. This is because Japanese people are culturally more industrious, it's nothing to do with genetics. They are raised to prioritise work over almost everything else in order to gain high social status.

We wouldn't say Americans are genetically fat, it would completely ignore the environment they grew up in (ie the fact that they eat more high calorie food than other countries).

Answer 9

There can be more genetic variation between two people of the same "race" or nationality than between two people that vary in nationality.

With that said, unfortunetly I would have to say yes it is racist to believe that Japanese people are genetically more industrious. I am not trying to judge or be overly harsh, but to believe superiority or inferiority of any nationality or culture due to genetics is racist.

Why the Japanese were able to reconstruct probably has to do more with the history of japanese culture and how that has effected there sociology and the fact that they were not in war immediately following the incident...among other factors.

Also lets not forget other nations who have rebuilt cities afters fires, flooding and natural disasters within the span of 60 years.

Answer 10

If Nagasaki and Hiroshima were two towns in the American  midwest ..maybe they wouldn't have been rebuilt ... not because Americans are less intelligent or genetically inferior but because we have so much land ,the survivors could have just moved .. in Japan ,land is at a premium( it's an island). not so in the U.S.A.    

    And if the japanese were more intelligent they wouldn't have bombed Pearl Harbor ... bringing us into ww2

  The asians I know are no more or less intelligent than anybody else.. there families push them more to make a better life for themselves .. We Americans are spoiled . so .. we think we deserve to get everything handed to us on a silver platter.... There's nothing genetic about it .. it's cultural.

Answer 11

As their is only one species of human being, is it not fallacious to use the word racist in this context. It is more cultural in their upbringing, with a determination to succeed.