Indonesian middle- and upper-class families are most likely consumers of Japanese goods, ranging from home appliances to luxury vehicles. If the commodities amount to an outcome of a work culture, their flow into Indonesia unfortunately does not bring along a transfer of value.

Simply put, many people in Indonesia can easily change their Japanese cars almost every year, but fail to learn from, let alone adopt, the value behind the products.

“My friends back home do nothing but take naps. Here, people start work in the morning and return home after dark falls. They are ashamed if they reach home early,” says Gede Mertayasa, 29, a Balinese who has just completed his contract with a canned dog food producer in Sakura city, Chiba prefecture.

Marrying his Japanese girlfriend, Gede arrived in Sakura in 2007 and was immediately forced to accustom himself to the country’s work rhythm.

The four-year stint, Gede says, has earned him not only a considerable amount of capital he will inject in his brother-in-law’s travel agency in Jimbaran, Bali, but also new values the family company needs to grow.

No doubt, hard work is key to the acceleration of Japan’s recovery following the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis, whose severity perhaps is only second to World War II.

A glance visit to bustling Akihabara electronic center in Tokyo in mid-July gave an impression that hard work was the magic spell to deal effectively with the disaster. Laox, the largest duty free shop in the area, saw its customers nose dive to zero following the March catastrophe. But business has now gradually regained ground, with full recovery expected in February next year.

In the same mood, players in the tourism industry, like other sectors that bear the brunt of disasters, have spared no effort in luring back foreign visitors, including organizing trips for travel agents and travel writers to have them tell the world that Japan is safe.

“Life must go on and we have a reason to remain optimistic as people now enjoy the day like they used to,” says Micky Gan, owner of Alpha International Service Corporation travel agency.
Multilingual: A trader uses foreign languages, including Indonesian, to sell his towels in a shop at the fifth station of Mount Fuji.JP/Dwi Atmanta

Apart from traveling to Asian countries to promote tourism in Japan, he works with other travel agents grouped under the Asia Inbound Sightseeing Organization to arrange a trip for 25 journalists from Asia and Australia, the largest it has ever organized, as part of the recovery.

Celebrities do not hesitate to join the campaign. The Japanese government recently launched a video featuring prominent boy band Arashi, who are traveling to Hokkaido, Kyoto, Okinawa, Kagoshima, Aomori and Tokyo to convey the message from Japan.

Japan today emulates the industrious grandma character in Yoshichi Shimada’s novel Saga no Gabai Baachan, who overcomes post-World War II impoverishment with her wits. If the grandma survives, so does Japan.

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