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Collectivism Vs American Individualism

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In this age of global awareness, ideals spread quickly and other countries can easily experience the world in totality. The ways of the people truly define the culture, and two unique styles pervade: collectivist and individualist. No two countries embody this extreme more than America and Japan. These differences are observable in the key areas of waste management, transportation, and safety. In the “home of the free,” Americans take an extremely individualistic stance on each of these topics. As noted by psychological research done in 2007, Americans’ propensity towards individualism has led to a crucial deficit in populace’s ability to understand someone else’s perspective (“America’s individualist culture influences the ability to …show more content…

Collectivist cultures truly desire to keep face, so understanding the needs and the wills of another individual is essential when it comes to saving face. In public spaces, trash and recycling bins seldom if ever exist in Japan. Some convenience stores or academic buildings may have them, but people in Japan are simply expected to carry their trash home with them (rather than littering). Japanese people, on average, produce 2.1 pounds of trash per person each day. But given the countries much smaller surface area, the people could not turn to landfills like Americans do. Instead, the government implemented a system divided into six separate compartments. One can for metal/plastic bottles, one for PET bottles, one for burnable trash, one for non-burnable trash, one for paper, and lastly, one for plastic drink caps. Each city or residential section has a different rule for how trash must be sorted and the frequency of its collection, but 100% of the population recycles all required items. Japanese society has a phrase “もったいない/mottainai,” which loosely translates to, “I don’t want to waste.” All of the country believes in this practice, as parents and teachers alike instill it in the children, so it is something they hold close to their hearts (“Japan’s Garbage Disposal System Explained”). Next, public transportation in Japan is almost a self-aware entity. A sheer difference to American society, 64% of Japanese people take some form of public transportation to school/work every day. Trains have the greatest popularity, since metro systems have national availability and a greater affordability than car transportation. Still, 12% of the population takes the commute by car, but this usually only occurs in more rural regions. For those who live in urban centers, travel by bicycle is

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