Gregory J. Kasza wrote:

>If we want to know why a certain pattern of public
policy took root,
>for instance, we should ask the policymakers what they
were
>thinking...if those policymakers themselves respond
that cultural
>values have shaped a particular pattern of
policymaking, then a
>cultural reading may be in order.
>
Asking policymakers why they did X, Y or Z may be the worst thing one can do. Would anyone trust TEPCO's explanations of its actions? Would anyone trust Lloyd Blankfein's explanation of why he had Goldman issue securities based on "liar loans," an apparent violation of securities law for which no one has been indicted?
Policymakers are "supposed" to give certain
explanations: in America, CEOs say their purpose is to enhance shareholder value; in Japan, they say the firm is run for the benefit of the employees (and sometimes other stakeholders); and the USSR was, of course, the workers' state. Is not the distinction between tatemae and honne part of "Japanese culture."

No one denies that culture plays some role, but, in this or that particular instance, is it 60% of the explanation or just 5%?

If culture is to be considered a primary factor in some pattern of behavior, a couple patterns should prevail:

1) That pattern is consistently different in Japan than in other countries. When faced with the same set of circumstances, Japanese consistently respond differently than people elsewhere. Is TEPCO's action any different than cover-ups, falsification of records, and disregard of safety issues by corporations all over the world when they face weak government regulation or when there is "regulatory capture"
(the explanation Kurokawa gave to Japanese)? Is its patterns of self-serving actions any different from those of corporate and governmental bureaucracies all over the world under all sorts of different social and economic systems?

2) That behavior pattern is stable over time. Japan in
2010 should resemble Japan of 1940 or 1840 more than American of 2010. Whether we ask about political systems, how a marriage partner is chosen, family arrangements, economic institutions, savings rates and income distribution, taste in food and music, etc. etc.
etc., does anyone think that is true? I've made a habit of asking 25-year-old educated Tokyo women whom they resemble more in their hopes and frustrations and sense of self: their counterpart in New York or their grandmother. They invariably say their NYC counterpart.

Often the cultural explanation is itself a tool of social control; at one point, Japanese were told that they like to save partly to raise the savings rate, which was low in the post-WWII years.. The Finance Ministry now says that tax cuts won't work because "we Japanese like to save and so wouldn't spend the money,"
even as Japanese household savings rate plunged from nearly 25% in the early 1970s to 15% in the mid-1990s to 2-3% today (less Americans who "culturally like to spend").
Workers are told they have company unions because "we Japanese" believe in groupism and harmony, rather than the fact that such unions give workers less bargaining power visavis employers.

How is TEPCO's behavior any different from the allegation by a US general investigating the Osprey crashes that he was pressured by his superior to find "pilot error" to replace his original finding of mechanical failure? This is an extremely serious allegation and yet, in "google news" I cannot find anything about any investigation by military or civilian authorities to get to the bottom of it. See http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2011/01/air-force-gen
erals-clash-on-osprey-crash-012211w/
and
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201
207160061 and I'm told NHK is about to get into the act on this story. How is this different from NISA's behavior vis-a-vis TEPCO? I also find almost nothing about this in the US press. So, we may have the reversal of the usual pattern: a story originating in the US later becomes picked up and made big news by the Japanese press, causing the US press to pick up on it.
Who knows? The Japanese press coverage might even spark a Congressional investigation.

Richard Katz
The Oriental Economist Report