Dennis has just blogged about Tim Kane’s observation when he first visited Japan in the 1980s-where he encountered a humbly equipped man sweeping the tarmac at Narita airport as if his life depended on it. Kane linked it to the overwhelming ratio of perspiration v. genius that adds up to excellence.

There’s something else there though. It’s symptomatic of how intensely Japanese individuals and organizations have come to focus on discovering value within their constraints. Toyota’s continuous reform (kaizen) program is justly famous for the way they look at change as a continuous stream, but a lot less is said about the implicit mindset that allows for what feeds that continuous stream. It’s the idea of working your framework so intensely and carefully and allowing the individual changes combine and “re” form the whole until you’ve eventually got a different box. But you didn’t start out insisting on getting out the box. In fact, it comes from a culturally mandated willingness to focus intensely on where you are and what you have. (The flip side of course, is that it can drive you mad to be so constrained, but more on that another time.)

What I was saying about the incredible Tokyo discipline to obey what can seem like a pettifogging rule of standing on the left is, I’m convinced, part of the same phenomenon-everyone is intent on getting the most out of every frigging commuting minute. It just wouldn’t happen that way otherwise. Same reason Japanese geeks are the most intense geeks anywhere. Or why Japanese classical concertgoers bring sheet music to performances. And why I am currently obsessed with us doing a better job facilitating the exchange when our project leaders can convey to donors the sense of incredible value and adventure that every project on our site represents. Here’s just a hint of what donors say when when the value gets uncovered. (It’s also why I try to wash and reuse our ziploc bags. It just seems un-Japanese not to.)

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I just returned from Japan, having participated in a Japanese-American Leadership Delegation trip sponsored by Japan’s Foreign Ministry, the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, and the Japanese-American National Museum in Los Angeles (highly recommended if you’re ever in LA). The purpose of the trip was to improve understanding and strengthen relationships between Japanese-Americans and Japan by meeting and exchanging information with leaders in politics, government, business, and culture. This is of particular importance given the history between the two countries, especially during World II when many Japanese-Americans were incarcerated in remote concentration camps in the US.

Despite the fact that my grandparents came from Japan, I had never visited, and to do so in a way that allowed such exposure and access was pretty amazing - we met with VIPs ranging from Prime Minister Fukuda to Princess Takamado to young (really young, like 30-year-old!) members of Parliament, and a host of others. My first few days were spent in a sort of “Lost in Translation“-style, jet lag-induced haze, and the packed schedule (7 official meetings on Monday alone) didn’t allow much time for acclimation, so I’m still processing everything we experienced. NHK, Japan’s public broadcasting network, also followed and filmed us, and since I was the one “newbie” in the group of 13 delegates from around the US, they were always interested in what I thought, which made me a bit self conscious.

And what did I think? On one level, having lived in and visited other “great cities” of the world, Tokyo seemed like, well, another great city, albeit one where most people looked like me (although my inability to communicate was slightly disconcerting). But on another level, the opportunity to visit ancestral “roots” touched me in an entirely different way. Things seemed familiar, even though they were new to me, but I was also struck that the Japan I thought I knew was actually the Japan my grandparents brought with them when they emigrated to the US-I realized that I needed to update my perceptions about today’s Japan.

All of the people we met talked about connections-the need to build, nurture, and continuously renew ties between governments, institutions, and most of all, people. In the abstract, I couldn’t agree more. But it wasn’t until we visited the southern city of Fukuoka, where my maternal grandmother was born, and I caught a glimpse of the harbor where she first embarked on her journey to the US nearly a hundred years ago, that the idea of connection suddenly felt more important, emotional, and real.

GlobalGiving was founded on the notion that everyone in the world is interconnected. I’m grateful for the opportunity I had to create this connection with my own family’s history, and to get a greater perspective on my place in the world.

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