Get them in group, however, and they reflexively think and act in a group. They pride themselves on their ability to alter their opinions and behavior to adjust to group dictates. This quality is called makoto, which translates as "sincerity," but, like so very many other things in Japan, the meaning in Japanese is the precise opposite of what it means in English.
For them, being sincere doesn't mean sticking by your principles or being devoid of guile. It means suppressing your self for the sake of the group and acting accordingly.
There were around 30 working that Summer. The resort was a religious one and smoking was forbidden on campus. One night I was in one of the sudents room conversing and I noticed a few times he glanced at his watch. Then a few minutes before One A.M., he made some excuse about needing to go to sleep so I left. Knowing these students liked to stay up really late I suspected something was going on.
I was in charge of security btw. I got outside the dorm and hid in some bushes. Sure enough, just at one o:clock, Japanese students, both male and female began to appear out of the dark and all met at the steps of the laundry building.
After a few minutes they all left as a group and went up to the recreation area which was about a half mile away. I followed at a distance and they got onto a softball field and formed a circle where they all sat around smoking and talking. Since they weren't really doing any harm we just let it go.
We also caught them several other times being sneaky but not really mean and again didn't make an issue of it.