Comparative Analysis of American and Japanese Educational Models

Abstract

Different countries have their own unique culture. The education for cultivating future talents is largely influenced by their own culture. This paper aims to excavate the influence that is affected by the culture of the Japanese educational model and the American educational model respectively on Hofstedes cultural dimensions theory. The main tool used in this paper is a website called country comparison tool which can select two different countries to make a comparison in cultural dimensions. This paper compares collectivism and individualism in American and Japanese education. Using the method of literature research and comparative research method, the similarities and differences in education between the United States and Japan are shown from the comparison of students textbooks, cram schools, educational philosophies, etc. The result shows that compared with the United States, Japan is a country that proposes collectivism obviously. However, this is not an invariable conclusion since global change is prevailing right now. American educational mode is embedded in collectivism to a certain extent while Japan has the same trend which is leaning toward individualism.