When I asked the people I met why japan had seen so little looting , they offered cultural analogies from far afield : the rigorous discipline of ikebana , the art of flower arranging ; the elaborate rituals of kendo , japanese fencing .
An english debating champion when he was an economics undergraduate at japan 's prestigious keio university he gave up the martial art , kendo , to take up a language he then spoke poorly mr shibata clearly enjoys his own sophisticated patter .