STUDY OF PERSONALITY AND BEHAVIOR
IN JAPANESE SOCIETY AND CULTURE
by Hiroshi Wagatsuma
Let us begin this paper with two questions: “Why do we study Japanese
personality and behavior?” and “Where should we go from here?”
One good reason for studying Japan is that Japan is an unique labo-
ratory of cultural and psychological alchemy in which Eastern and Western
ingredients have been thrown together during the past hundred some years.
In the crucible of Japanese society and culture, one should be able to find
exciting specimens of culture contact, culture diffusion, acculturation, and
innovation. Of particular interest to us is the problem of social and self
identity, especially of youth.
As for the direction in which we should move, let us recall the suggestions
made by Ronald Dore six years ago. At the end of a Bermuda Conference
on Modernization of Japan, January 1963, Dore expressed his vision of
the new stage into which Japanese studies should be moving in order to
avoid the sterility that might otherwise set into the field. His opinion, shared
by many of us, was that there are two major ways by which the field of
Japanese studies can enrich itself and move forward with greater reward.
One is the fuller utilization of the results of native Japanese scholars’ efforts,
and the incorporation of knowledge available in Japan and the United
States, and anywhere else for that matter, into common storage. The
second major way, as suggested by Dore, is to compare Japan with other
relevant countries.
To attain the first goal, many American scholars will need better com-
mand of written Japanese to read freely what their Japanese colleagues
produce. The Japanese scholars, in turn, need better command of spoken
English to communicate with their American colleagues. They also need
more knowledge concerning the framework, perspectives, and preoccupa-
tions with which their American colleagues work. Better communication
and interaction between Japanese and American scholars on a much more
advanced and sophisticated level will in many cases lead to a deepening
of American knowledge, and a widening of the Japanese perspectives.
What is important in such ventures is that both American and Japanese
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