Cultural differences between East and West

In Japan, often

"Americans are XX, while Japanese are YY."
"The Japanese are ◇◇, while the Chinese are ✖✖."

Such statements can be heard on television and online.

Among these, the most frequently asked question concerns the differences between East Asians and Westerners. If you replace these with "Japanese" and "Westerners (Americans)," you'll see that these are indeed common statements.

Westerners generally...	East Asians are generally...
Emphasis on self-reliance	Prioritize interdependence
Emphasizes individualistic values	Emphasize collective values
They often overestimate their own strengths.	They tend not to overestimate their own strengths.
Emphasis is placed on the individual's personality and other internal characteristics.	Emphasis is placed on attributes related to the individual (such as their affiliation).
I prefer self-improvement to self-criticism.	Prefers self-criticism to self-improvement
To spontaneously express oneself in a positive way	Spontaneously expressing negative self-expression
I don't tend to be self-deprecating by comparing my life to others.	I often make self-deprecating remarks by comparing my life to that of others.
Having an unrealistic and optimistic view of the future	Don't have an unrealistic and overly optimistic view of the future.
Interpreting things in a way that suits oneself (Attribution bias）	Don't interpret things in a way that suits you.Attribution bias）
The desire to improve oneself through self-criticism is weak.	They have a strong desire to improve themselves through self-criticism.
I want to achieve better performance than my classmates.	I don't want to achieve better performance than my classmates.
Ignoring negative feedback reflexively	Acknowledge negative feedback immediately
After the initial success, continue to do so.	After the initial failure, continue on
Evaluate based on successful tasks.	Evaluate based on failed tasks.
Most personality traits are about striving to improve oneself	They try to improve themselves only in certain aspects of their personality.
To improve an individual's personality, way of thinking, and other characteristics.	Improve attributes related to an individual, such as their affiliation.

Numerous studies have shown that psychological functions are regulated by cultural influences. This is natural, considering that we grow up within the norms of that culture. Even when watching foreigners on television, you can see that they react differently to certain events. For example, consider the Americans hugging each other upon first meeting. The cultures are vastly different from Japan, and communication upon first meeting is much more casual in America.

But, for example, is Japan's culture really as different from the West as the table suggests? If so, how different is it? Is it no different within the West? South America has many Latin people, but is it the same as Europe? What about Arabia? Africa? Southeast Asia? Japan's neighbors, Korea and China?

Now, let's take a look at what the differences are.