Director Ema Ryan Yamazaki On Her Oscar Contender ‘Instruments Of A Beating Heart’: Film Reveals “How A Japanese Person Is Made”

deadline.com:

In Japan, you can set your watch by the arrival of a train. “Delays” (if that’s the word) tend to be calculated in seconds – not minutes or hours. “This precision results from a combination of advanced technology, meticulous planning, and a deep-rooted cultural emphasis on punctuality and respect for others,” notes the website ScienceABC.

But how do you cultivate a society that values punctuality and respect for others? The key can be found in the country’s primary school system, observes filmmaker Ema Ryan Yamazaki.

Her Oscar-contending documentary Instruments of a Beating Heart, a New York Times Op-Doc, goes inside a typical Tokyo school where kids are preparing to complete first grade.

Yamazaki herself is a product of that educational environment. “If you wonder why Japan is the way it is, why our trains run on time, why there’s no trash on the streets — we’re not born that way,” Yamazaki tells Deadline. “I think we’re really taught to be a certain way.