Cultural Evaluation Paper
XBCOM/275
12/6/13
Rene Cintron

Cultural is the characteristics of a particular group of people. The group of people can be defined by language, religion, cuisine, or social habits. The cultural in the US is called the western culture and was heavily influenced by European immigration. This culture’s roots come from the classical period of the Greco-Roman era and the rise of Christianity. The culture in Japan is called the eastern culture. The eastern culture and the western culture were both heavily influenced by religion during its early development. The culture in Japan has not changed much since its development in 660 BC. Japanese people are still extremely protective of their culture and their society. “One good way to make yourself unpopular in Japan is to quote studies that indicate the Japanese are descendants from immigrants from mainland Asia” (Morrison & Conway, 2006, p. 280). In Japan their government is a parliamentary democracy under a constitution monarch. This means that there is an emperor who rules the country. The current emperor of Japan is Akihito. Akihito has been on the throne since 1989. Akihito is extremely respected because in Japan people respect their elders to the highest degree. Therefore younger members of a team should remain quite during meetings. Younger members of the team are on the team to go out to social events at night and build relationships with other younger members of the opposite team. During social events at night the younger members of the team usually tell the opposite team how the older members of the team felt about the meeting. In Japan older business men dislike a strong public display of emotion like anger, they feel it shows a lack of self-control and the person displaying the emotion will be thought of as a poor business man. When processing information regarding an argument from a meeting; Japanese business men will usually not think about outside influences and instead hold fast to their traditional values.
Japanese people usually relay more on their feelings than on facts. They are more subjective than objective. They always want to make the group happy so they will change their decision to what makes the group happy instead of what make the individual happy. In the US when processing information regarding an argument from a meeting, points are made by accumulation of objective facts. Decisions are sometimes influenced by democracy or capitalism. Decisions are rarely influenced by feelings. Therefor there would have to be different ways that arguments would need to be made and changed as the result of the cultural differences.

Reference page:
Morrison, T., & Conaway, W. A. (2006). Kiss, Bow, Or Shake Hands (2nd ed.). Avon , MA: Adams Media