Broad Listening is Important in Japan, Where Air Rules

Japanese culture is unique, but first we need to understand "how unique" at a higher resolution.

https://gyazo.com/d04ca9be867c45bfa8029d1001d8c6a2

Hierarchical on the right, consensus-oriented on the bottom

Bottom right edge is Japan

Culture in which individuals on the team feel less likely to disagree with the team's opinion once the team's decision is made (hierarchical)

https://gyazo.com/618ecdca200efea9d4d81eb77979f753

However, when the boss or team leader makes decisions for the team alone, there is animosity. (non-top-down)

Team members feel frustrated when they are not involved in the decision-making process. Leaders are expected to gather members' opinions and make decisions, rather than making decisions alone. (Consensus oriented)

https://gyazo.com/c1df67182a3555ff4ebe6cf531dc218a

This is a minority culture where individual bosses cannot make decisions for their teams, yet they are hierarchical and do not go against the decisions of those above them."

Only Japan, Germany, and Belgium in the scatterplot.

People from many cultures around the world would think, "I don't understand, isn't that a contradiction?" They would think, "I don't know.

The reason why this situation occurs in Japan is because the "higher-ups" are not "individual bosses.

Go against the company's wishes," etc.

This is the upper echelon in Japan

So individual bosses don't like top-down decision making because it's "going against the higher-ups."

Never say "I disagree" to another person's opinion.

avoid a discussion

https://gyazo.com/3e189413cc0691d62b46ff0a6933770a

In communities where this culture is strong, a higher percentage of "speakers" are very angry, believe in strange ideas, or are mentally deranged.

This culture is maintained and reinforced by the fact that the majority of people feel negatively about "speaking up" when they see this type of radical statement.

政治的対立.icon

Strange Japanese who value consensus but are afraid to express opinions that differ from others.

In the two-dimensional scatterplot above, besides Japan, Germany and Belgium were in the lower right quadrant

Its Germany is at the opposite end of the axis regarding confrontation from Japan. They are willing to discuss it.

Japanese people want their opinions heard, even though they don't speak up for themselves.

I think it would be preferable if Japanese culture would change towards expressing one's opinion more.

However, culture is difficult to control, so at this point we need to consider this culture as a constraint and design a system suitable for it.

In a culture of top-down decision making, it reinforces the ability of top management to understand everyone's feelings.

In a consensus-oriented culture, it reinforces that everyone understands everyone else's feelings.

This "everyone's feeling" is "air" in Japan, and making it visible reduces misunderstandings and conflicting interpretations.

Broad listening is the key to replacing the "Japanese organization governed by air" with a high-speed "digital democracy" through "air digitalization.

Broad listening methods that have been successful overseas will not work if brought directly to Japan.

Because the constraints of culture are different.

If you bring the way of doing things in a culture where members don't hesitate to express their opinions directly to Japan, you will end up with "people don't express their opinions".

It needs to be modified for the Japanese situation.

Polis opinion posting, I kind of left the default "you can't post an opinion unless it's named", but maybe I'd rather have "all opinions will be anonymized".

https://gyazo.com/c0e6ced7034c7e4163267bd3490c10a1

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, "Research Study on the Impact of ICT Evolution on Society" (2014)

relevance

How did you start thinking about cultural differences?

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