Japan vs. world oil crisis?

First, in case you missed it, check out a recent speech by a Nobel prize winner about how the US can and should be selling / running cars 100% carbon-free by 2018.

Second, since this is a Tokyo analysis blog, I'll reveal a recent observation I made: Japan is well-suited to survive a world oil crisis.

Don't mean to forbode, or dooms-day, or sooth say. I really hope our planet's transition from oil is smooth. (I'm also not going to start talking about global warming.) But oil is running out, and prices are going up. If there is a burp in productivity, prices will burp too. It makes sense to start thinking about how we can live on less oil.

And I've gotta say that Japan seems better off than the US in this regard. People are used to crowded living. The live-able land is as big as a US state, whereas the population is about HALF the US population. The fraction of power that comes from nuclear is pretty high, and the fraction of people that drive daily is small.

I think the biggest reason is cultural: Japanese people are still culturally aware of their feudal age, which officially ended only 150 years ago. People want to live close together--a holdover from the time when a village had to weigh land for rice patties over privacy, I think. "Crowded" has a connotation of happy and lively.

The result is super narrow streets that cars literally don't fit on--where would you park it anyway? And neighborhoods where it literally is faster go shopping at the supermarket by bicycle. The only vehicles guaranteed to run every day are delivery trucks and scooters.

Of course, the other benefit of having a shadow memory of feudal times is the ability to cope. You don't often hear Japanese people complaining about a late bus, or having to take the bus in the first place. ... I can't imagine there'd be much time wasted on a "Why did this have to happen to me" reaction if the flow of foreign oil happened to stop. They'd just say "Oh well". And then "So, who wants to walk next door for noodles?"