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That's amazing about the people of Kobe. Aren't the Japanese mostly Shintoist and Buddhist? Maybe their religion has something to do with the way they handle crises. They are a very disciplined people.

The people of Kobe in their earthquake were magnificent; spontaneously self-organized.

However the Japanese government made a total botch of handling the quake; one Japanese minister later committed suicide.

They'd over-focused earthquake preparations on the Tokyo region, and also, they were tremendously overconfident; they did a lot of rote "earthquake drills" where people went through the motions but they really weren't learning anything.

It is more out of a social structure and sense of social obligation (allegiance to the GROUP for the greater, larger good), that allows the Japanese in general, with a few minor exceptions, to sublimate personal issues, wants and desire and impatience, and be more 'other' centered. There is little mentality of 'entitlement'. Thus, they have a much much longer shelf life of patience in these kinds of disastrous things, and generally don't come unglued like we are seeing in New Orleans. It is not so much Buddhist or Shinto temperment, as it is 'Japanese village culture' (shudan dotoku) of not being self-centered and selfish, but rather, self-reliant, cooperative, respectful of authority and it's orders, and full of pride, obligation, brave in the face of discomfort and pain, sense of 'face', loyalty and honor (and shame at the risk of ostracism, if one decides to do wrong). The ghetto morality in the United States is almost the opposite. It is in precisely doing WRONG and acts of extreme selfishness, then one is "included" and not ostracized and one must be evil and tough and even menacing to survive at times.

That story about the orderly conduct of the Japanese victims of the Kobe earthquake does not surprise me. The Japanese have always had a reputation for their orderly, disciplined public conduct.

Any soccer fans out there might remember the Japanese fans who cheered their team on at the World Cup a few years back. They stayed around at the end of the game and picked up all their trash from the stands before leaving.

Aren't the Japanese mostly Shintoist and Buddhist? Maybe their religion has something to do with the way they handle crises.

Mostly atheist for all intents and purposes.

The religion has very little to do with it. It has everything to do with the culture, which while colored by religion, is quite independent of it. The unique characteristics of Japanese society and cultural result in what you see. One only has to look at the vast differences between nominally Christian cultures to see that.