Comparing Japan And Canada

“Individualism is the idea that the individual’s life belongs to him and that he has an inalienable right to live as he sees fit, to act on his own judgement, to keep and use the product of his effort, and to pursue the causes of his choosing.” My take on individualism, is basically that we can control ourselves, we can do what we want with restrictions to keep those that stand by us safe. Individualism is a way of a society. Now, on the other hand there is collectivism, “the idea that the individual’s life belongs not to him but to the group or society of which he is merely a part of has no rights, and that he must sacrifice his values and goals for the group’s greater good.” My take on this is “idea” is that you are completely controlled when put under this way of society. Having read the book Anthem by Ayn Rand collectivism is for sure something that I would not want to be a part of.

Principles like collectivism are structured to give individuals priorities and conducts to follow. Meanwhile, individualism is set as a principle that favors freedom of action for individuals

Japanese people have had a very vivid history in Canada. Before 1868, it was illegal for Japanese citizens to leave the country, but with a change in government in the 1870s, they were encouraged to travel overseas to earn money and learn skills that they could bring home, as Japan in the early 20th century did not hold a lot of opportunity, especially in rural areas. In

Canadian workplaces today seem to be a fairly diverse place, with a blend of many religions, ethnicities, and genders present. However, although people preach affirmative action and melting pots in current times, many inequality and power issues still abound. One strikingly noticeable example is gender discrimination. Women in the workforce face many challenges like smaller wages, harassment, male privilege in hiring or promotions, and lack of support when pregnant or raising children. One half of the planet is women, and it can be assumed the same for Canada, but they still face judgment at work because they lack the authority to dispute against big corporations or even their male supervisor. It cannot be argued that

As one may know, cultural aspects differ between a myriad of countries. In particular, Japan is a traditional yet historical society that is worlds apart from the familiar United States. Specifically, Geert Hofstede and Edward T. Hall conducted a study based on cultural influences in relation to the workplace as well as characteristics of a high context society. However, it is vital to recognize Japan’s business norms and customs, culture, and etiquette before one’s journey begins.

When a business decides to venture internationally into different countries with its products, services, and operations, it is very important that the company gains an understanding of how the culture of the different societies affects the values found in those societies. Geert Hofstede conducted one of the most famous and most used studies on how culture relates to values. Hofstede study enabled him to compare dimensions of culture across 40 countries. He originally isolated four dimensions of what he claimed summarized different cultures — power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism, and masculinity versus femininity (Hill, 2013, p.110). To cover aspects of values not discussed in the original paradigm Hofstede has since added two more dimensions — Confucianism or long-term orientation and indulgence versus self-restraint (Hofstede, n.d.). Because of the way Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are given an index score from 0-100, it is easy for a company to get a general comparison between the cultures they are expanding into and the culture they are already in.

The Geert Hofstede cultural dimensions seek to explain the culture of a country along five dimensions power distance, individuality, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation. Power distance reflects the degree to which a culture is accepting of differences in power. The higher the score, the more the country accepts inequalities among the people in the culture. The United Kingdom scores 35 and Japan 54. This means that the UK is in particular a low power distance culture, in that the people in the culture generally do not tolerate inequality in the society. For a society that has historically been class-based, this is an interesting finding, but Britain has also been home to many Enlightenment thinkers and their ideals about equality. Japan is a mildly hierarchical society with its score, and Japanese people are generally conscious of their hierarchical position. Japan tends to be fairly hierarchical in a business

Japans earliest written record were found in Chinese source. Japan and China are very similar in many ways. Many of the Chinese culture had been adapted in to the Japanese cultures

Japan has a history of formality and of family, The United States has a history of expansion and individualism. These two cultures are both similar and different as expected, but which one is better? Taking a look at what makes them different would decide that. We will look at different aspects of life that differ such as food, housing, societal culture, and the economies of these two cultures. One look at the typical diets of these two shows an obvious difference, Japan is all about the freshness of their food, while The United States are care more about convenience, this comes down to the type of food eaten by both cultures.

Japan with a score of 46, this means that this is a country that appreciates the collectivist culture. It depicts several aspects of collectivist characteristics such as understanding groups more than the individualistic values.

The fourth dimension of Hofstede’s paradigm understands how society deals with the unknown. If a country has a low uncertainty avoidance they believe that whatever will happen will happen. Low avoidance indicates that they do not have much control or want to have much control on the future. In comparison a high uncertainty avoidance indicates that a country is structured in a way to try as best as possible to be in control of the future. For instance, a high avoidance society has made advanced plans to take into account resources needed in a natural disaster.

Now, this score is based on four factors: economic participation and opportunity (which is essentially Japanese women in the workplace), educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Japan does really well in educational attainment and health and survival. The scores that hurt Japan the most are the ones related to women in the work place. It's well-known that Japanese women don't have the same job opportunities as men in Japan. The number one reason I hear about this is because Japanese women

Japan scored 54 points on a scale of 0-100 in the power distance category, meaning that they have a more hierarchical structure (unlike most of the other Asian countries), which the Japanese consider as accurate. To prevent unilateral decision-making and the exercise of power in a company, the decision-making processes usually has to go through all hierarchical levels and requires final approval of the top management layer.

Individualism: The individualism dimension of a culture is where individuals are expected to take care of only themselves and their immediate families. The opposite is collectivism, where an individual is loyal to a particular in-group.

The purpose of this report is to look into the culture analysis of Japan, dealing with the country’s culture and business culture. Japan is a country whereby one can have many travel adventures at. I for one am greatly attracted by the scenery japan offers. Japan has always been such a joy to visit and the culture they offered is defiantly one of my favorite, period. For example, the Japanese language is one of the sixth most spoken in the world.