Modern japanese psychology and how it compares to western psychological concepts
Keywords:
japanese culture, modernization, dynamic cultures, cross-cultural psychology, collectivism and individualismAbstract
«Collectivism» has been, and still seems to be, the label used to stereotype Japanese society. However, in this modern world, this label given to Japanese culture can be very misleading due to the plasticity of human behavior. In this paper, we explore how Japanese society has been perceived through the eyes of Westerners. In addition, we gathered research data on how this perception of Japanese culture compares with actual Japanese society. We suggest that «collectivism» may not be perfectly apt for describing the Japanese population, as modern Japanese society also enforces individualism in many ways.
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