To respnd to Hiroaki Richard Watanabe:

I have to disagree with you: the people who do the most " stereotping" are those who persist in the vacuous 'cultural' argument. This approach says nothing more than "the Japanese do what they do because they are
Japanese"-- duh! Of course, but hardly an explanation for anything! Yes, different attitudes and behavioral traits may be differently distributed across different populations but unless you can connectt a particular subgroup to a particular incident then saying this is hardly an explanation either. Finally If there are particular attitudes and traits in a particular subgroup involved in an incident these may be because of socio- economic incentives of rhat group and not because of a national characteristic, as Gerry Curtis points out. Sorry, cultural explanations are simplistic, usually vapid, and obscure more than they enlighten.
Best regards,
Ellis
Ellis S. Krauss
Professor,
Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies University of California, San Diego