The Riddle of Japan

Visiting another culture always challenges the assumptions of your own. Question: What nation is largely atheistic in practice, believes the group is more important than the individual, and distributes the wealth rather equally across 80 per cent of its society? You’re probably thinking of the Soviet Union, but the real answer is—Japan.

Americans tend to attribute the Soviets’ misery to their culture’s lack of religion, suppression of individuality, and egalitarian distribution of capital. Yet Japanese society shares all these characteristics, and Japan is rolling. The cross-cultural experience instructs us, once again, that it is dangerous to apply assumptions imported from one experience to another.

MG

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Michael Gazzaniga

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Visiting another culture always challenges the assumptions of your own. Question: What nation is largely atheistic in practice, believes the group is more important than the individual, and distributes the wealth rather equally across 80 per cent of its society? You’re probably thinking of the Soviet Union, but the real answer is—Japan.

Americans tend to attribute the Soviets’ misery to their culture’s lack of religion, suppression of individuality, and egalitarian distribution of capital. Yet Japanese society shares all these characteristics, and Japan is rolling. The cross-cultural experience instructs us, once again, that it is dangerous to apply assumptions imported from one experience to another.