The final word

And so with the marchers a-marching, taxi drivers a-murdering and the Libyan rebels a-sweeping Westwards towards Tripoli, the time has come to forget about Japan. However, I leave it to the columnist Richard Littlejohn, who offers this thoughtful meditation on why we even cared about it in the first place!

As he says, “it remains a faraway country of which we know little and understand less.” What we do know is ugly. As he rightly points out, everyone in Japan is a racist, and they seem to have developed a distinct culture all of their own.

Quite apart from the inconvenience of being forced to observe a minute’s silence, when we didn’t even know anyone from Japan- it is galling to learn that it is jall ust a scam to make more money out of the showing of Premier League football matches.

Take it away Mr Littlejohn- your invitation is in the post.

"No one with a shred of humanity can fail to be moved by some of the pictures coming out of Japan.

The images from Japan might be horrific, but do they really warrant such highly publicised hand-wringing?

Despite filling our homes with Japanese electronics and our garages with cars made by Nissan and Toyota, despite the vivid images on TV and assorted social networks, it remains a faraway country of which we know little and understand less.

Anyone who has visited or worked in Japan will tell you it is like landing on another planet. Beyond the baseball caps and Western clothes, the Japanese people have a distinct culture of their own, which is entirely alien to our own values. They are militantly racist and in the past have been capable of great cruelty.

I often wonder what our fathers and grandfathers would have made of modern Britain’s ghastly cult of sentimentality and vicarious grief.

Ever since the hysteria surrounding the death of Lady Di, when half of the nation seemed to take leave of its senses, a section of the population seizes any excuse for a sobfest.

Showing ‘respect’ has become institutionalised. Before every one of the weekend’s Premier League football matches, for instance, fans were forced to stand and observe a minute’s silence for Japan.

Why?

I have no objection to honouring the dead in public, if the occasion or sense of loss warrants it. At White Hart Lane we’ve recently said goodbye to some of the stars of Spurs’ double-winning side from the Sixties. There was genuine sadness over the loss of men many in the crowd had known personally.

But how many of the hundreds of thousands of supporters corralled into grieving for Japan could even point to that country on a map?

Of course, there is a commercial incentive here for the Premier League. No doubt the Japanese TV rights are up for renegotiation soon.

These days we’d have a minute’s silence if Harry Redknapp’s dog got run over.

I abhor the modern tendency to co-opt every tragedy in the world as an excuse for a self-indulgent display of cost-free compassion.

By all means pray for Japan, if you are so inclined, but do it privately.

‘Here in Japan we are more like the British with their stiff upper lip.’

It only goes to show that the Japanese know as little about modern Britain as we know about them."