ABSTRACT
This chapter explores similarities between the Japanese and the US cultures. It examines the relationship between competitiveness and the two cultures. In the US culture, firstly, it is Individualism that is thought basically form its social ethos. In the Japanese culture, it is thought Kotodama and Matsuri which duly promote that diffusion. In the Japanese culture, on the other hand, Yaoyorozu-No-Kami, Kanjyo and Shugo are the attributes that pertinently support Effectiveness. Yaoyorozu-No-Kami represents such ways of thinking that the more alternatives there are the better; that competition-restrictive practices should be abolished. In the Japanese culture, it is Nigi-Mitama and Ara-Mitama, in the first place, that backs up the Tense balance between effectiveness and ethics. In the Japanese culture, Ethics is descriptively expressed in the attributes of Misogi and Hajio-Shiru-Kokoro. Individualism, Diligence and Competition are fundamental to Ethics among American people.
