PACIFIC DIVIDE: AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM—JAPANESE UNIQUENESS

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Abstract
This paper, part of a larger effort to explicate the nature of American exceptionalism, is based on an assumption recently enunciated by Kazuo Ogura: ‘To define the “other” is to know one's nation’ (Lokker, 1992, p. 2). A person who knows only one country basically knows no country well. Comparing the United States or Japan with other nations is the best way to learn about each. In a previous work, I dealt with Canada, and argued that ‘it is precisely because the two North American democracies have so much in common that they permit students of each to gain insights into the factors that cause variations’ (Lipset, 1990). Here, I shift to looking at the two outliers, the two developed nations which are most different from each other. They clearly have distinct organizing principles. And their values, institutions and behaviors fit into sharply different functional wholes. These variations, of course, have been written about in myriad comparative scholarly, business and journalistic works. Given my limited contact with Japan (five visits covering a total of six months over 30 years), I cannot add to them observationally. This article, however, seeks to elaborate and test the validity of the qualitative analyses by a comprehensive examination of the comparative data on opinions, values and behavior, collected by public opinion agencies (Glazer, 1976). As will be evident, there are astonishingly large differences between them.

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