Japanese Cultural Values

Japan has a very rich and unique culture, unlike any other culture in the world. The Japanese are close and united, and willing to help each other, to the point that they would even risk their lives for one another. Their culture has certain aspects of it that every nation should have. In his book, John Hersey explores the effects that culture and environment have on an individual’s views and belief through analyzing a stereotypical Japanese man, an Americanized Japanese priest, and a widowed Japanese woman and how they react similarly to the bombing of Hiroshima. The influence of Japanese culture has an astounding impact on the reactions of Hersey’s characters.

Geert Hofstede is an influential Dutch researcher in the fields of organizational studies and more concretely organizational culture, also cultural economics and management. He is a well-known pioneer in his research of cross-cultural groups and organizations and played a major role in developing a systematic framework for assessing and differentiating national cultures and organizational cultures. His studies demonstrated that there are national and regional cultural groups that influence behavior of societies and organizations.

To say the Japanese culture value family is an understatement. To say they value honor is a no brainer. What many don’t know is just how deep these values go, as well as how often they are reflected in their literature. In the past the Japanese valued honor, now they call it saving face in our modern times. Both terms mean the same thing and can be lost or earned almost the same way. The Japanese value honor and family, both are equally displayed in various works of literature. The Tale of the Heike gives prime examples of how the Japanese honor others and themselves. The tale also shows how the Japanese culture values family of their own as well as others.

Japan is a collectivistic culture country, they put more emphasis on group members, group obligations, and group goals that on the individual (Hamilton, 2014, p.74). Their culture is more relationship oriented, valuing empathy, listening, preserving friendships and saving face for the individual and others (Hamilton, 2014, p.75). Japan consists of a high context culture, relying minimally on spoken words. This is a tightly bound culture by experiences, family, and tradition (Hamilton, 2014, p.76).

People no longer use the term “Japanese American” in today's society. Instead, they are no longer thought as a separate group and are incorrectly categorized as “Asian American”, along with Vietnamese American, Chinese American, etc. Japanese Americans have an extremely unique background in terms of their origins, history, and struggle with racialization. Like many ethnic groups, Japanese Americans have been subjected to many different portrayals throughout American history. Even though cultural separation and suspicion are deemed as immoral, such practices toward them were thought to be necessary by the American Government. For a good amount of time, they suffered from racial hostility and violence. Now, in an age where cultural diversity

    Japan is a country of many cultures. Japan’s most renowned is the art of the samurai and currently, urbanization. Due to the American occupation in the pacific, Japanese moved from a cultural masterpiece, to an eastern constitutional monarchy. Which is generally effected by a western influence.

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

Table 6.1 Show Japan and the United States rank on the five dimensions of culture.

Japanese Americans practice a wide range of religions. Those religions are Buddhism, Shinto, and Christianity. Many Japanese tradition has been influenced by practices of Shinto and Buddhist. Massive amounts of Japanese Americans that continue to practice Buddhism. Many traditions and festivals revolve around Buddhist Institutions. For example, the Obon Festival, Which occurs in the summer, provides a chance for them to reconnect with their traditions and customs, and to eventually pass those traditions to the young. Those type of festivals are common when there are large populations of Japanese Americans. A reasonable number of Japanese people in and out are secular. Shinto and Buddhism are most often practiced by funerals or marriages, not

This paper provided an opportunity to take a deeper look into the country of Japan by conducting a Global Cultural Analysis. Throughout this paper the following four research areas were explored: 1.What is the major elements and dimensions of culture in Japan? 2. How are these elements and dimensions integrated by locals conducting business in Japan? 3. How does U.S. culture and business compare with the elements and dimensions of culture integrated by the locals conducting business in Japan? 4. What are the implications for U.S. businesses that wish to conduct business with Japan?

With a score of 95 in masculinity, society in Japan is more driven by achievement and success as a team, perfection in material production, or material services. Unlike Japan, the United States is driven more by achievement and success as an individual. The culture in the United States is to measures one’s success by the car and houses that person lives in or drives. When it comes to uncertainty avoidance, Japan’s value doubles that of the United States. Major factors that impacts Japan’s uncertainty avoidance factor are natural disasters. With the threat of being the victim of numerous earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons the people of Japan must be ready for any kind of

Japan and the United States have been allies for years. Our two countries have overcome many obstacles to achieve the alliance we currently maintain. Even though there has been some challenges and differences over the years, our two countries have some similarities. There are differences between Japanese and American cultures as well. Japan is a successful country, and continues to thrive, due to its operational environment and rich culture. The operational environment categories we share common ground are politics, military, and economic.

I never had the chance to experience other cultures in my younger years. I did not have much of a choice but to think of other cultures as they were portrayed in society, whether that be of a false image or that of a good one. Being a student at Saint Cloud State has given me the chance to experience the fascinating and, somewhat, bizarre world of other cultures. I have learned vast amounts of information about Japan and the Japanese people not just through my experiences with others in class, such as Thean or David, but through my studying and my interview with Itsuko, as well.

In the far-east, off the coast of the Asian continent lies an island nation, originally shrouded in mystery from the rest of the known world. From a remote and isolated empire to a United States ally, Japan has successfully made its existence known to the international community. Over the period of the nineteenth and twentieth century’s, Japan has gone through drastic changes to its political, military, and economic infrastructure that has had an impact on its unique culture.

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.