Hacker News Reader

Comment by astrange | Hacker News Reader

Japanese people are significantly more individualist than Americans. You can have any weird hobby you want and they’ll ignore you. They produce more cultural exports per capita than the US does too.

The stereotypical collectivist society is a better description of Korea. A better way to explain Japan is it’s like England but Asian.

View on HN

I find this implausible after just having visited Japan. The Japanese and Japanese culture are a lot of great things but I would never ever describe it as individualistic.

They’re not showing it to you. They keep it private but it’s still there. (that’s called “honne and tatemae”)

You’re welcome to look through used fashion/music stores in Tokyo if you want to see how good their soft power is.

Meanwhile the stereotypical suburban American thinks every nearby city is a hub of crime and won’t let their children walk anywhere until they’re 25. Vs: https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1596322167222063104

You should read the replies to that tweet:

https://twitter.com/keccers/status/1596324554095595521

https://twitter.com/robinkunde/status/1596325433653559298

It is very common for American schools to have student art shows.

I don't know where you get your perception of the US from, but it sure isn't reality. Your other two "observations" are similarly divorced from the real world.

I read them. I think the point being missed there isn’t that it happens at all, but that US schools would be expecting that out of much older children. (My critique here would be, if you ask elementary schoolers to do a project, you might just get what their parents can do for them.)

> They’re not showing it to you. They keep it private but it’s still there. (that’s called “honne and tatemae”)

There is in my opinion a direct conflict between everyone being highly individual and noone being willing to show it. What does individualism even mean if it isn't visible?

I'd never deny Japan has a lot of great culture and soft power however my definition of individualism contains a key component that an individual is willing to hold an alternate opinion and display it prominently and assertively to a crowd of others in their society. Basically in defiance of what they think and at least in some circumstances to piss them off.

This type of individualism is virtually none-existent in Japan from what I can see/saw there/know of the country and was told by people.

An individualism that isn't on public display is in my opinion not a particularly strong form of individualism. I'd agree that Japanese people probably have as much variation in thought etc as in the West however if we are looking at the overall culture, individualism is not a prominent strain of it.

”What does individualism even mean if it isn't visible?” This beautifully sums up east vs west.

How so?

In what sense does American culture punish/suppress/relegate people who have private hobbies that Japanese culture doesn't?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com