Socio-Cultural and Institutional Influences

Abstract

Whenever I presented my studies relating to collective myopia on many occasions at international academic conferences, invited lectures, and informal discussions by non-Japanese scholars, I was countlessly asked similar questions, especially by those who belong to “individualistic” cultures. The questions were like, “Isn’t collective myopia a pathology that is conditioned by certain cultural traits, such as Japanese? That is why Japanese organizations are apt to suffer from collective myopia.” I am obligated to answer this robust yet fundamental question. My conclusion in advance is that Japanese socio-cultural influences do not condition collective myopia but amplify it.

I drew some portions of my previously written articles (Chikudate 2002a, 2004a) in this chapter.