American norms vs. Japan norms

Cultures is regarded as an influential dynamic society with standards for a group of people. Many immigrates, have passed down their beliefs or stigma to their first, second and third generation Americans. Their beliefs influences their concept of traditions, for example marriage, sexuality standards and virginity virtues.

The United States’ and Japan’s political systems have some similarities and differences. The United States has a federal government, which in our textbook is defined as “a system of government in which power is divided, by a constitution, between a central government and regional governments.” Japan has a unitary government which is defined as, “a centralized government system in which lower levels of government have little power independent of the national government.” Some of the similarities in the political systems are that both governments are broken into three branches (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial). Also, they both elect their political leaders, and value the opinion of their citizens and institutions to determine leaders. The

Two different elements of culture are language and norms. Language is a central element of a culture and shaped how we interpret and shape our society. Norms are the guidelines that shape our behavior. Norms are widely shares and help keep our society operating soothly.

The focus and objective of sociology is to examine social patterns. Examining social patterns reveal the sources of pressures and constraints that affect individuals’ thoughts and behaviors. There are three types of social patterns which are culture, social institutions and social structure. Culture is the shared symbols, ideas, beliefs, values, customs and material products by people in a particular society. These shared factors are accumulated through the passage of time. Social Institutions are structures and or mechanisms that provide a set of ideas and or rules that governs how individuals are to act in order to achieve important goals to which that society recognizes. Social structure is the statuses and or pattern of social relationships that have an effect of shaping individuals’ interactions with one another and how various distributions are determined. Hierarchy is one type of social structure.

Norms are behaviors or rules that set forth what is expected of us as people and as a society.

American culture has been referred to as a “melting pot.” Different cultures have added their own distinct aspects to society, making America a diverse country. Despite the plethora of cultures, certain norms, mores, and folkways are evident in American society. These ideas are vital to the function and stability of America. They provide guidelines for what is acceptable and not. In virtually every society, there are people who engage in deviant behavior and do not abide by the values that the rest of society follows. Theorists have debated if people are socialized into acting this way and if it is a social or personal problem. The sociological study of culture focuses on norms, mores, and folkways.

Lets start by understanding that cultures are a melting pot of people’s beliefs, language, behaviors, values, material objects, and norms. Norms are written and non-written “expectations of behavior” that govern a certain location, place, or culture (26). These norms also vary from culture to culture meaning what is a norm in the U.S may not be a norm in India. For example, a norm in America would be tipping a waiter after a meal. Another would be acknowledging someone as you walk past him or her, typically done at work or in a public place. In all, norms are folkways, mores, taboos, and written laws that are an established standard of one’s behavior.

C) a norm governing everyday social behavior, the violation of which raises comparatively little concern.

There are significant cultural differences between Japan and the United Kingdom that need to be taken into account when doing international business. There are also a number of methods and systems by which these differences have been described. These include the Geert Hofstede cultural dimensions, Trompenaars seven dimensions of culture and the Globe Project's cultural dimensions. This paper will discuss these differences and similarities, and shed light as to the best approach to international business in these countries.

It would be in order to first examine the connotation and exact meaning of culture. Sociologists differ wide in their perceptions in explanting culture and its inter-related concepts. The best definition from the military view point is given by Leslie A. White, who quotes famous sociologists Frank Boas and Melville J. Herskovits. He writes “culture may be defined (as per Boas), as the totality of the mental and physical reactions and activities that characterise the behaviour of individuals composing a social group….”. He further quotes Herskovits and says, “When culture is closely analysed, we find but a series of patterned reactions that characterise the behaviour of the individuals who constitute a given group. Another writer Sapir quoted by Leslie white classified culture as the mass of typical reactions.’ Culture is best summarised as a way of life of the people. It is manmade part of environment. Cultures includes beliefs, ideas, religion, art, customs and other habits which the people acquire while living in a society. Another very important aspect of culture is that it is ever changing by learning and transmitting from one generation to other through a

Sociologists consider Culture a huge topic of study. They belief that there are many elements and aspects of culture. However, in sociology culture is categorized in two distinguish concepts or categories: material culture, and non material culture.

Culture is described as the symbols that individuals, groups and societies use to make decision of daily life and to assure their values. Culture is a model of basic assumptions invented, discovered or developed by a given organization as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaption and internal combination, which has worked well enough to think correctly and, so to instruct to new comers as the valid way to observe, consider and feel in relation to these problems. Culture consists of manner, mind-set, values, rituals, religious belief, law (written and unwritten), arts, ideas, custom, belief, ceremonies, social institutions, myths and legends, individual identity and behavior. Cultural pattern classifies are used to describe the dominant beliefs and values. Culture has been called the way of life for an entire society. It is a group or community living together and sharing a set of norms. Culture and society are coexistent. One does not or cannot exist without the other. Culture and society may have some common elements but the two are not the same; they are not identical.

The culture of a place is an integral part of its society whether that place is a remote Indian village in Brazil or a highly industrialized city in Western Europe. The culture of Japan fascinates people in the United States because, at first glance, it seems so different. Everything that characterizes the United States--newness, racial heterogeneity, vast territory, informality, and an ethic of individualism-- is absent in Japan. There, one finds an ancient and homogeneous society, an ethic that emphasizes the importance of groups, and a tradition of formal behavior governing every aspect of daily living, from drinking tea to saying hello. On the surface at least, U.S. and Japanese

The general idea of culture that is ingrained into the brains of many people, may consist of associating culture with countries or ethnic groups. One of the main key points to this term is that it incorporates much more than just those two aspects. When viewing it from a sociological perspective, culture can be deconstructed into 3 components. Through background knowledge after taking a sociology class, values, norms, and artifacts when combined, is what defines the term culture. These aspects that create culture, can differentiate a family from one another.

The Japanese are known to close their eyes when they are listening intently. This is a reaction to block out from sensing other things that are going on in the room. In America, we can find many distracting things that are meant to distract you. If you go to an NBA playoff game and watch a professional basketball player attempt a free-throw at an away game, you will see almost everyone in the audience do their best to distract the player, in order for him to miss the free-throw. You will hear loud noises, see shirts waving, and even see fan memorabilia made, bought, and obtained for that sole purpose during a free-throw shooting. One American religion, called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints shows reverence similar to the Japanese eye contact