America is a low-context culture, which values someone who is plain-spoken. 'What you see is what you get' is a compliment in America: according to one interview subject, Mr. B, who had done extensive travel back and forth from America to Japan on business, such an ideal is antithetical to Japan. "Japan is a much smaller nation, geographically. Respect for one another, rather than respect for the individual is emphasized in its highly interconnected, bureaucratic government and economy, and simply because people have to get along with one another -- there are few places one can get away and be alone!" He remarked that succeeding in encouraging his Japanese clients to innovate or to take a risk in business was rare, given that until recently there was a strong sense of the value of routine and social welfare, not just in government, but even in private enterprise.
A friend of mine who was brought up in America, but who has a Japanese mother, remarks how it is difficult for her mother to understand that is unlikely that the girl will work for the same firm, in the same occupation from cradle to crave. Until Japan's economy began to soften, it was normal for most...
Japan's uncertainty avoidance is far lower than the United States on a personal as well as an institutional level. It also places far greater emphasis on such 'feminine' values as cooperation, versus standing up to one's superiors and striking a new path in a stereotypically 'masculine' fashion. The caution of Japanese society and its relatively long-term orientation about new projects can be an asset, as manifest in Toyota's obsession with error-free production methods and its research and development in new hybrid technology, but can also act as a barrier to innovation and individualistic expression.
Works Cited
Geert Hofstede: Cultural dimensions -- Japan. Geert Hofstede.
October 20, 2009 at http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_japan.shtml
Hall, Edward Twitchell & Mildred Reed Hall. Understanding Cultural Differences: Germans,
French, and Americans, Intercultural Press, 1990.
Interview: Mr. B. (family friend). October 15, 2009.
Interview: Susan O (friend). October 12, 2009.
