Do Japanese People Really Feel More Pressure to Conform?—It Is Not the Public Eye but the Eyes of People They Know
“Japanese people face strong pressure to conform.”
We hear this often. Japanese people are described as collectivist and Americans as individualist, as if personality were determined by ethnicity.
Psychological research, however, has suggested that Japanese people are not necessarily more likely than Americans to conform in every situation.
Why, then, does Japanese society seem to exert so much pressure to conform?
I came across research suggesting that the answer may lie not in the Japanese personality but in the structure of social relationships.
What Matters Is Not What Strangers Think but What Acquaintances Think
This makes sense to me from my own experience.
If everyone around me is a complete stranger, I do not care very much what they think.
Even if I do something slightly odd, I will probably never see them again.
But the presence of just one acquaintance changes everything.
“You should have seen what he was doing.”
The moment I imagine a story like that spreading, I become much more careful about how I behave.
In other words, what concerns us is not some vague sense of being watched by society.
It is the judgment of people we will have to face again tomorrow.
In a workplace, school, or local community where the same people remain together for years, standing out from the group carries a cost.
If people dislike you, the environment becomes uncomfortable. In some cases, it can even affect your work or daily life.
So you conform to those around you.
Rather than an ethnic personality trait, is that not a fairly rational way to behave?
Hokkaido vs. Traditional Rural Communities in Japan
Regional differences within Japan provide an interesting way to consider the influence of environment.
Hokkaido, for example, saw large-scale settlement begin in the Meiji era and has a different history from the old village communities of Japan’s main island, Honshu.
In a society populated by many newcomers, the obligations created by family and local ties extending over generations are relatively weak.
Some research has linked this historical background to more individualistic values.
Even among Japanese people, behavior changes when the environment changes.
Something similar occurs in a large city like Tokyo.
Traditional village-style relationships are difficult to maintain in an apartment building where people do not even know who lives next door.
If your neighbor dislikes you, it will have almost no effect on your work the next day.
In a less populated area, by contrast, relationships with neighbors may be directly connected to daily life itself.
The real source of conformity pressure may not be Japanese DNA, but whether people can escape their relationships.
Japanese People Are Considerate Toward Insiders and Surprisingly Cold Toward Strangers
Another interesting point is the dual nature of Japanese behavior.
People may be excessively considerate toward their coworkers. They think up an excuse merely to decline an invitation to a company drinking party, and they hesitate to express disagreement in a meeting.
Yet they can be remarkably indifferent toward complete strangers.
Even when they see someone in trouble, nobody offers to help.
They are almost overly considerate toward members of their own group while keeping outsiders at a distance.
This is also easier to understand if we see it as a characteristic of a society that places importance on stable, long-term relationships.
What matters is not so much whether the person needs help, but whether the relationship with that person will continue.
It is rather calculating, but perhaps human beings are simply like that.
Will the Decline of Lifetime Employment Also Weaken the Pressure to Conform?
What, then, will happen to conformity pressure in Japan from now on?
I believe it will gradually weaken.
Consider the workplace.
When lifetime employment was taken for granted, being disliked by your boss posed a serious risk to a long career at the same company.
People tolerated unreasonable demands, went along with those around them, and avoided making waves.
As changing jobs becomes more common, however, people no longer have to remain in the relationships of one company for the rest of their lives.
If they do not like it, they can move to another company.
The same is true of schools and local communities. People now have more communities to choose from than they did before.
Moving somewhere else or changing schools when an environment becomes intolerable has become a more realistic option.
We are gradually leaving behind an era in which rejection by a single group could ruin a person’s life.
Of course, social media has created different forms of conformity pressure. Greater freedom in our relationships will not eliminate every kind of pressure to conform.
Even so, the structure that once forced people to obey a fixed group in order to survive will probably continue to change little by little.
Conformity Pressure Is Not About National Character but About Having a Way Out
Ultimately, saying that “Japanese people face strong pressure to conform” is a little too simplistic.
Even among Japanese people, behavior changes depending on who they are with and the situation they are in.
We do not care much when everyone is a stranger. We care when someone we know is present. We care even more when that person is someone we must continue dealing with.
I am exactly the same.
In other words, the more fixed our relationships are and the fewer ways we have to escape them, the stronger the pressure to conform becomes.
Conversely, in a society where people are free to choose whom they associate with, there is less need to force themselves to fit in.
Japanese people do not need to undergo a sudden change of personality and become like Westerners.
When the environment changes, behavior changes with it.
Perhaps what Japanese people truly feared was not “what society might think,” but what the boss they would have to face again tomorrow might think.