The United StatesvsJapan
アメリカと日本USJP
Seen from the United States: each line below describes Japan relative to the United States.
Culture Map: eight scales
Erin Meyer's eight scales, sorted by how far apart the United States and Japan sit, largest gap first.
Filled dot: the United States, where you are looking fromHollow ring: Japan
Where you will notice the difference7 scales
Communicating
Japan leaves more to be read between the lines than the United States (6 steps)
The United States −3, Japan +3, on a line from −3 (Low-context) to +3 (High-context).
Leading
Japan keeps more distance between boss and team than the United States (4 steps)
The United States −1, Japan +3, on a line from −3 (Egalitarian) to +3 (Hierarchical).
Deciding
Japan decides by group agreement more than the United States (4 steps)
The United States +1, Japan −3, on a line from −3 (Consensual) to +3 (Top-down).
Trusting
Japan builds trust through personal relationships more than the United States (4 steps)
The United States −3, Japan +1, on a line from −3 (Task-based) to +3 (Relationship-based).
Evaluating
Japan gives negative feedback more indirectly than the United States (3 steps)
The United States 0, Japan +3, on a line from −3 (Direct negative feedback) to +3 (Indirect negative feedback).
Disagreeing
Japan avoids open disagreement more than the United States (3 steps)
The United States 0, Japan +3, on a line from −3 (Confrontational) to +3 (Avoids confrontation).
Scheduling
Japan sticks to fixed plans and deadlines more than the United States (1 step)
The United States −1, Japan −2, on a line from −3 (Linear time) to +3 (Flexible time).
Not placed1 scale
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
Hofstede: six dimensions
Scores from 0 to 100, sorted by the gap between the United States and Japan. They describe national averages, not either country's character.
Long-term orientation
Japan scores 50 points higher than the United States (100 against 50)
The United States 50, Japan 100, on a line from 0 (Short-term) to 100 (Long-term).
Uncertainty avoidance
Japan scores 46 points higher than the United States (92 against 46)
The United States 46, Japan 92, on a line from 0 (Tolerant of ambiguity) to 100 (Avoids ambiguity).
Motivation towards achievement and success
Japan scores 33 points higher than the United States (95 against 62)
The United States 62, Japan 95, on a line from 0 (Consensus-oriented) to 100 (Decisive).
Indulgence
Japan scores 26 points lower than the United States (42 against 68)
The United States 68, Japan 42, on a line from 0 (Restrained) to 100 (Indulgent).
Power distance
Japan scores 14 points higher than the United States (54 against 40)
The United States 40, Japan 54, on a line from 0 (Low power distance) to 100 (High power distance).
Individualism
Japan scores 2 points higher than the United States (62 against 60)
The United States 60, Japan 62, on a line from 0 (Collectivist) to 100 (Individualist).
What the sources say, theme by theme
Entries for the United States and Japan, side by side on wide screens. Each keeps its own confidence label and citations.
Design & quality
United States3 claims
At Google, engineers write a relatively informal design doc before writing code. According to Malte Ubl (2020), the point is not an exhaustive specification but a record of the trade-offs and alternatives considered.
Thin1 source2020us-design-1
Ubl says a design doc should be as long as necessary and as short as possible, and distinguishes it from a heavyweight waterfall-style specification.
Thin1 source2015Datedus-design-2
Meyer places the United States on the applications-first side of the Persuading scale. A book summary describes this as starting from conclusions and examples and favoring the practical how over the theoretical why.
Thin1 sourceus-design-3
Japan4 claims
Failure & risk
United States2 claims
The Google SRE Book (2016) codifies the blameless postmortem. It identifies contributing causes without blaming individuals or teams and assumes that everyone involved acted with good intentions.
Well attested1 source2016us-failure-1
At F8 in 2014, Zuckerberg changed Facebook's motto from "Move fast and break things" to "Move fast with stable infra." His reason was that at Facebook's scale, the time spent fixing breakage outweighed the gain in speed.
Attested1 source2014Datedus-failure-2
Japan3 claims
Feedback & code review
United States3 claims
According to Meyer, Americans are often taught to wrap negative messages in positive ones (the feedback sandwich). For this reason she places the United States in the middle of the scale for delivering negative feedback.
Attested1 source2014Datedus-feedback-1
A blog explainer on Meyer's evaluating scale notes a common mismatch: Dutch and German colleagues take American praise at face value, while Americans find Dutch and German criticism too harsh.
Thin1 source2016us-feedback-2
A study of more than 70,000 GitHub pull requests from 17 countries (Rastogi et al., 2018) found that pull requests were more likely to be accepted when the reviewer and the submitter were in the same country.
Well attested1 source2018us-feedback-3
Japan4 claims
Hierarchy & decisions
United States2 claims
Meyer classifies the United States as egalitarian but top-down (HBR, 2017). People use first names and are encouraged to speak up, but the boss decides quickly, and the decision can be revisited when new arguments appear.
Attested1 source2017us-hierarchy-1
In the same article, Meyer reports that to Japanese managers an American boss can look flat on the surface yet highly autocratic in how decisions are made.
Attested1 source2017us-hierarchy-2
Japan3 claims
Communication & docs
United States4 claims
Meyer places the United States at the most low-context end of the Communicating scale. A book summary describes a preference for saying things explicitly and for repeating and summarizing key points.
Thin1 sourceus-communication-1
According to Bezos's 2017 shareholder letter, Amazon does not use PowerPoint. Meetings start with everyone silently reading a six-page narrative memo, and memos carry no author's name because they come from the whole team.
Well attested1 source2018us-communication-2
According to CNBC (2018), the practice began with a 2004 email from Bezos. He explained that a good four-page memo is harder to write than a 20-page slide deck because the narrative structure forces better thinking.
Attested1 source2018us-communication-3
According to a blog post by Slab, Stripe also rarely uses slides. Meetings begin with silent reading of a memo, followed by comments on the document.
Thin1 sourceus-communication-4
Japan3 claims
Work & careers
United States5 claims
According to the BLS, median employee tenure in January 2024 was 3.9 years overall, the lowest since January 2002. In the private sector it was 3.5 years.
Well attested1 source2024us-work-1
- BLS: Employee Tenure in 2024 (2024)
At-will employment is the default in every state except Montana. Unless the reason is illegal, either the employer or the employee can end the employment relationship at any time.
Well attested1 sourceus-work-2
According to layoffs.fyi figures cited by TechCrunch, tech layoffs in 2024 exceeded 150,000 people at 549 companies. The peak was 2023, with about 260,000.
Attested1 source2024us-work-3
In the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025, 45% of US respondents work fully remote, the highest share among the top responding countries. Median salaries were $200k for engineering managers, $175k for back-end developers, and $138k for full-stack developers.
Well attested1 source2025us-work-4
In Staff Engineer (2021), Will Larson sorts Staff+ individual-contributor roles, which do not require becoming a manager, into four archetypes: Tech Lead, Architect, Solver, and Right Hand.
Attested1 source2021us-work-5
- Will Larson: Staff Engineer (2021)
Japan5 claims
Open source & community
United States2 claims
According to Octoverse 2025, the number of US developers on GitHub grew from 10.2 million in 2020 to 28 million in 2025, the most of any country. The US ranks second to India in open source contributors and first in total contributions.
Well attested1 source2025us-oss-1
- GitHub Octoverse 2025 (2025)
The same Octoverse 2025 report says the US, UK, and Canada more than doubled their developer counts from 2020 to 2025, while India and Brazil more than quadrupled. Its 2030 projection puts India ahead of the United States.
Well attested1 source2025us-oss-2
- GitHub Octoverse 2025 (2025)
Japan4 claims