Quote Originally Posted by OakLeaf View Post
I don't know. Remember how many people did the same thing at Chernobyl. And (granted that the risks were different and to some extent unknown) at the World Trade Center site.

Did you read the Johann Hari piece I linked to?

The volunteers are amazing, commendable, there's no adjective too extreme for what they're doing. But I don't know that they're uniquely Japanese.
Not yet, I'll read it later. I was thinking not of volunteering as such, but of the mindset that not accepting would mean dishonour of you and your family. I won't elaborate, I know far too little about it.