Westerners come to Tokyo and say: "The Japanese are so clean! They pick up trash out of pure civic virtue!" No, we do not. We pick up trash because of terror. Tokyo has almost zero public trash cans. You carry an empty coffee cup in your backpack for seven hours not out of love for the planet, but because if anyone in your neighborhood sees you leave it on a bench, your social standing is permanently liquidated. Japan is not powered by morals. Japan is powered by mutual assured surveillance. Everyone is watching everyone. Everyone is taking silent mental notes. The punishment for breaking the rule is not a fine. It is the unspoken consensus that you are now untouchable. You think we leave streets spotless because we are angels. We leave them spotless because we are terrified of each other.

Westerners think Japanese punctuality is about honor and work ethic. No. It is about escape velocity. If a meeting is scheduled for 2:00 PM, a Japanese person shows up at 1:55 PM. Not because we love the company. Because if the meeting starts late, it ends late. And ending late means spending an extra seven minutes in the same room, breathing the same air as other humans. Lateness creates conversation. "Sorry I'm late! Traffic was crazy!" Now everyone has to laugh, nod, and validate you. That is pure torture. We are not on time because we respect the clock. We are on time because punctuality is a strictly coordinated countdown to the exact microsecond we can legally stop looking at each other.

Westinghouse's plans for a $50 billion IPO signal that a US nuclear renaissance may be getting underway, @liamdenning says, even if it undercuts industry startups (via @opinion)