I will compare the cultural dimension of the United States and Japan. Japan is an island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the North Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan’s name mean “sun-origin”, which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the “Land of the Rising Sun”.
Japan’s current population is estimated at 126.66 million including approximately two million foreign residents. More than half of the non-Japanese population is of Korean descent.
Power Distance
At a score of 54, Japan is a mildly hierarchical society. Yes, Japanese are always conscious of their hierarchical position in any social setting and act accordingly. However, it is not as hierarchical as most of the other Asian cultures. Some foreigners experience Japan as extremely hierarchical because of their business experience of thoroughly slow decision making process: all the decisions must be confirmed by each hierarchical layer and finally by the top management in Tokyo. Ironically, the exact example of their slow decision making process shows that in Japanese society there is no one top guy who can take decision like in more hierarchical societies. Compared to the United States everybody is unique and not equal and it expresses the attitude of the culture toward these power inequalities amongst us. Power distance in the United States is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of societies and organizations within our country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. It has to do with the fact that a society’s inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders. (Hofstede Centre).
Individualism