Culture Difference between America and Japan

There are a number of connotations that are often used to describe a peoples culture. But culture is generally accepted as the way a community of people has chosen to live their lives in the best ways they feel would harmonize their traditions, languages, notions, dress or dietary ways. The first culture difference that many Japanese find in America is their greeting customs. Although the greeting is one of the simplest human communications, both countries have different methods of greeting each other. Three differences include introduction, self-introduction, and departure. In addition, the main reason for the difference is that Americans use verbal greetings and the Japanese use nonverbal greetings.

First, the order of introduction in the U.S. is the reverse of the Japanese way. In America, generally elderly people are introduced first. For example, The family introducing order in American culture you need, firstly greet with father, mother, brother and etc. And after that you start to introduce with the family. In contrast, the traditional rule is the opposite in Japan. In other words, young people have to be introduced first in Japan. This rule is the sort of manner in Japan, and the people who do not follow this regulation are considered rude. The methodology of self-introduction varies between America and Japan. Americans prefer the inductive method that brings out general idea from concrete; therefore, they are apt to talk about their privacy first. Almost all American students talk about their family or themselves. In contrast, Japanese prefer a deductive method. In other words, Japanese people are likely to talk about where they belong to. For example, the typical Japanese person first talks about his university or his major, then what kind of club they belong to. Finally they usually talk about hobbies or an event that happened recently. Departures in the American and the Japanese cultures depend on whether people are close or not. Americans just say "bye." Nevertheless if the conditions differ, this departure changes completely in America. In fact, Americans give a hug or kiss to their family when they leave. In contrast, unlike Americans, who just say "goodbye," generally Japanese make a shallow bow and look back two or three times with their waving hand. Due to the different farewell, every Japanese person who is in America is surprised when they get a hug from an American friend, and they feel Americans are emotional or sentimental. On the contrary, they feel empty and passionless when many Americans say "bye" and just walk away. Many reason for the differences in greetings are the verbal in America and nonverbal in Japan. Generally Americans are apt to use the verbal, so Americans always say "Hi" or "How are you?" Even people who are strangers say "How is it going?" Due to inexperience with this greeting, first, most Japanese people who come to America are confused whether they should respond or not. As a result, they think Americans are friendly, refreshing, or sociable. However, Japanese people tend to use nonverbal language. Many Japanese just make a bow with a smile indicating respect. Usually, young people have to make a deep bow for their superiors. In addition, not only gesture but also voice and countenance are very significant. Consequently, every American who is in Japan feels uncomfortable at first because they are not used to Japanese customs. In conclusion, even the simplest communication is quite different because of culture. The first impression of the greeting is very important because some people distinguish whether this person is good or not. In other words, people who live in other countries have to obey a method of greeting in each country.

Japanese, as well as American culture is heavily influenced by the kind of society of people living in either country. For instance, the society in Japan is largely homogeneous and middle class, whereas the American society is heavily heterogeneous, owing to the increased levels of immigration. This has contributed to a very diverse ethnic setting and widened the inequality gap in American society. These two varying trends have profound influence on the cultures of the two societies.

Because of the divergent set of ethnic groups in American society, this phenomenon has helped to breed a number of subcultures existing within a single American macro-culture. This is one of the key distinguishing features of American culture. Consequently, every American citizen belongs to a number of subcultures, which may be connoted as ethnic origin, religion, class, gender, exceptionality, geographical location and so forth. Every individual subculture has certain common attributes with the main macro culture. On the other hand, the Japanese society is not as diverse, in terms of subcultures. This is partly due to the fact that there is less immigration to Japan, and only a small fraction of the total population 1% are not Japanese by ethnicity. The Japanese society is largely urban, hence a big population density.

The structure of the family in the two cultures widely differs too. While in Japanese culture the structure of the family is very much still defined by tradition, in American culture the family structure is much more free and family members freely choose roles depending on likes or tastes. Roles are not traditionally defined.

Still with family life, the roles of the wife and husband in a family differ in the two cultures. While the wife in any Japanese family is expected to look after her husband, American culture will almost take that notion as offensive. In Japanese culture, the man is seen as the family head and all his needs must be tendered to first, while in American culture, a husband and wife are equal and their roles in the family are not clearly defined, but rather are a matter of and can do. American culture is very heterogeneous (many subcultures) while Japanese culture is largely homogeneous. Japanese culture of family life is very much defined by tradition while the American one is not. Japanese culture isnt as much influenced by immigration as American culture is.

Language - The language is much more complex in Japan. Americans tend to dumb down English quite a lot and spend much less time studying their own language than Japanese do. Music - American pop/rock music is much better, much more original. However within other genres, there are many great Japanese musicians. Acting - Americans have much better actors. Japanese acting is very poor in general. Eating - Japanese eat much better. Much more attention is paid to all aspects of eating, from cultivation in the fields, to freshness at stores, to display at restaurants, to actual physical enjoyment of the food, to... Dressing - Japanese dress much better. Events - Japanese enjoy subtle things such as moon-viewing, cherry blossom viewing, etc. Americans are more into motorcar racing, WWF, etc You should not compare Japanese culture with your own. Japanese culture is very deep when American culture is narrow. But you can compare Modern Japanese culture with American culture, you will find some similarities. Modern Japanese culture is mixed culture of western nations' with Japanese ancient culture. For instance, in Japan, people tend to look to the eyes for emotional cues, whereas Americans tend to look to the mouth, says researcher Masaki Yuki, a behavioral scientist at Hokkaido University in Japan. This could be because the Japanese, when in the presence of others, try to suppress their emotions more than Americans do. In any case, the eyes are more difficult to control than the mouth, he said, so they probably provide better clues about a persons emotional state even if he or she is trying to hide it. Japanese people tend to shy away from overt displays of emotion, and rarely smile or frown with their mouths, because the Japanese culture tends to emphasize conformity, humbleness and emotional suppression, traits that are thought to promote better relationships. Research has shown that the expressive muscles around the eyes provide key clues about a persons genuine emotions, said Coan. Because Japanese people tend to focus on the eyes, they could be better, overall, than Americans at perceiving peoples true feelings.