IndiavsJapan
インドと日本INJP
Seen from India: each line below describes Japan relative to India.
Culture Map: eight scales
Erin Meyer's eight scales, sorted by how far apart India and Japan sit, largest gap first.
Filled dot: India, where you are looking fromHollow ring: Japan
Where you will notice the difference6 scales
Deciding
Japan decides by group agreement more than India (4 steps)
India +1, Japan −3, on a line from −3 (Consensual) to +3 (Top-down).
Scheduling
Japan sticks to fixed plans and deadlines more than India (4 steps)
India +2, Japan −2, on a line from −3 (Linear time) to +3 (Flexible time).
Communicating
Japan leaves more to be read between the lines than India (2 steps)
India +1, Japan +3, on a line from −3 (Low-context) to +3 (High-context).
Evaluating
Japan gives negative feedback more indirectly than India (2 steps)
India +1, Japan +3, on a line from −3 (Direct negative feedback) to +3 (Indirect negative feedback).
Disagreeing
Japan avoids open disagreement more than India (2 steps)
India +1, Japan +3, on a line from −3 (Confrontational) to +3 (Avoids confrontation).
Trusting
Japan builds trust through reliable work more than India (1 step)
India +2, Japan +1, on a line from −3 (Task-based) to +3 (Relationship-based).
Not placed2 scales
These scales are left unmarked: either Meyer leaves a country off the scale or no source places it, and drawing it anyway would be guessing.
- PersuadingMeyer leaves Japan off this scale and describes its reasoning as holistic; no source places India on it
- LeadingNo source places India on this scale
Hofstede: six dimensions
Scores from 0 to 100, sorted by the gap between India and Japan. They describe national averages, not either country's character.
Uncertainty avoidance
Japan scores 52 points higher than India (92 against 40)
India 40, Japan 92, on a line from 0 (Tolerant of ambiguity) to 100 (Avoids ambiguity).
Long-term orientation
Japan scores 49 points higher than India (100 against 51)
India 51, Japan 100, on a line from 0 (Short-term) to 100 (Long-term).
Motivation towards achievement and success
Japan scores 39 points higher than India (95 against 56)
India 56, Japan 95, on a line from 0 (Consensus-oriented) to 100 (Decisive).
Individualism
Japan scores 38 points higher than India (62 against 24)
India 24, Japan 62, on a line from 0 (Collectivist) to 100 (Individualist).
Power distance
Japan scores 23 points lower than India (54 against 77)
India 77, Japan 54, on a line from 0 (Low power distance) to 100 (High power distance).
Indulgence
Japan scores 16 points higher than India (42 against 26)
India 26, Japan 42, on a line from 0 (Restrained) to 100 (Indulgent).
What the sources say, theme by theme
Entries for India and Japan, side by side on wide screens. Each keeps its own confidence label and citations.
Design & quality
India4 claims
TCS announced in 2011 that it had been assessed at CMMI Level 5 enterprise-wide for both CMMI-DEV and CMMI-SVC, and says it was the first company in the world to reach enterprise-wide Level 5 for SVC.
Well attested1 source2011Datedin-design-1
Hiring-industry articles contrast services firms ("specs are king, process-heavy, ticket-driven") with product companies ("design docs, code review, CI/CD"). Neither is backed by research.
Thin2 sourcesin-design-2
The idea that jugaad (improvised fixes under constraints) is a virtue in software development draws criticism from Indian engineers themselves, on Hacker News and elsewhere. Others defend it as frugal engineering, such as designing apps that work on 2G connections.
Thin3 sourcesin-design-3
Zerodha is India's largest stockbroker, yet its tech team of 33–35 people self-hosts the entire stack. CTO Kailash Nadh says it is a misconception that team size must grow in proportion to the number of users.
Attested2 sources2024in-design-4
Japan4 claims
Failure & risk
India3 claims
According to Meyer's 2017 HBR article, in top-down decision-making cultures, India among them, decisions are made quickly but can change as new input or arguments arise. A decision is treated as a placeholder that can be adjusted later, not a firm commitment.
Attested1 source2017in-failure-1
On Meyer's Scheduling scale, India is on the flexible-time side, described as running several things in parallel, accepting interruptions and prioritizing adaptation.
Attested1 sourcein-failure-2
The claim that offshore teams do not escalate bad news rests on anecdotes on Hacker News. Other HN commenters counter that US-side managers often have not built a structure that invites pushback.
Thin2 sources2024in-failure-3
Japan3 claims
Feedback & code review
India2 claims
An article summarizing Meyer's eight scales places India toward the high-context end and on the side that avoids confrontation.
Attested1 sourcein-feedback-1
Rastogi et al. (ESEM 2018), analyzing about 70,000 GitHub pull requests, found that in 16 of 17 countries, pull requests were more likely to be accepted when the submitter and reviewer were from the same country. India was the exception: acceptance fell by 7.4% when the maintainer was also from India.
Attested1 source2019in-feedback-2
Japan4 claims
Hierarchy & decisions
India3 claims
Meyer's 2017 HBR article places India in the top-down, hierarchical quadrant, together with Brazil, China, France, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Attested1 source2017in-hierarchy-1
India scores 77 on Hofstede's power distance (PDI), its highest of the six dimensions. The Culture Factor describes this as an appreciation of hierarchy and top-down structure.
Attested1 source2026in-hierarchy-2
A hiring-industry article contrasts services firms, which run on approval chains and hierarchy, with product startups, where engineers can talk to founders directly and decisions are fast.
Thin1 sourcein-hierarchy-3
Japan3 claims
Communication & docs
India2 claims
In the EF EPI 2024, India ranked 69th of 116 countries and regions. English is widely used as a working language, but India's rank on this test is mid-table.
Attested1 source2024in-communication-1
Explainers of Meyer's Trusting scale place India on the relationship-based side, where trust built through personal relationships is needed before work begins.
Thin1 sourcein-communication-2
Japan3 claims
Work & careers
India5 claims
NASSCOM estimated India's tech industry revenue for FY2025 at about $282.6 billion, with 5.8 million employees (a net addition of 126,000). A 2026 revision raised these to $297 billion and 5.82 million.
Attested2 sources2026in-work-1
According to NASSCOM and Zinnov, India had more than 1,700 global capability centers (GCCs) of foreign companies employing more than 1.9 million people as of FY2024. GCCs are also spreading to tier-2 cities.
Attested2 sources2024in-work-2
Attrition at the large IT services firms swings with the business cycle. In Q2 FY23 it was 27.1% at Infosys, 23% at Wipro and 21.5% at TCS; by Q4 FY24 it had fallen to 12.5% at TCS and 12.6% at Infosys.
Attested2 sources2024in-work-3
According to USCIS, 72.3% of H-1B petitions approved in FY2023 were for people born in India; 11.7% were for people born in China.
Well attested2 sources2025in-work-4
In 2023, Infosys founder Narayana Murthy said young Indians should work 70 hours a week. The remark drew strong backlash on social media but support from some business leaders, and public opinion split.
Attested2 sources2023in-work-5
Japan5 claims
Open source & community
India4 claims
According to GitHub Octoverse 2025, India has 21.9 million developers, second only to the US (up from 4.5 million in 2020). More than 5 million joined in 2025 alone.
Well attested1 source2025in-oss-1
- GitHub Octoverse 2025 (2025)
The same Octoverse 2025 report says India has already overtaken the US to have the world's largest base of public and open source contributors, and projects 57.5 million developers in India by 2030.
Well attested1 source2025in-oss-2
- GitHub Octoverse 2025 (2025)
Zerodha launched FLOSS/fund in October 2024 to give $1 million a year to open source projects worldwide. In 2025 it paid out a total of $1 million to projects including Blender, FFmpeg and OpenSSL.
Attested2 sources2025in-oss-3
Zerodha CTO Kailash Nadh says India uses FOSS heavily but its contributions are negligible, and has proposed a government-backed sovereign FOSS fund.
Attested1 sourcein-oss-4
Japan4 claims