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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Graf" data-source="post: 544194" data-attributes="member: 3087">And now for something on topicDuring the Tokugawa (Aka "closed country") period everything was regulated very tightly. Pesants were forbidden to leave where the were born, etc. The government insituted a program whereby all families were grouped into groups of five. Each family's house was visible from at least one other member of the groups.It was against the law to close your doors (remeber that in traditional houses much of the walls of the building were actually doors). So effectively your neighbors could see into your house at all times (or at least until you went to bed).If any household was found to broken a law (sedition, abandoning their property, etc) all the familes were punished equally. People were constantly spying on your neighbors,... sort of like a traditional version of Big Brother.I've read that some sociologists think that the strong tendency of Japanese to avoid reacting to public bad behavior comes from this time period. Basically people got into the habit of ignoring their neighbors daily lives for social convenience. This continued as people packed into urban areas and were exposed constantly to what happened around them.</blockquote>