ABSTRACT
Social welfare benefits cover the elderly, people with physical or mental disabilities, single mothers and their dependents, and those suffering from diseases difficult to cure. The resulting imbalance between the percentage of young and old people is expected to put a strain on the Japanese social security system. The stereotypical image of the docile, conformist Japanese governed by a sense of social harmony is shattered from time to time. The Japanese propensity toward perceiving things in a hierarchical order inclines them to rank Western nations, especially the United States, at the top in terms of political, economic, and social importance, and the underdeveloped nations lower down the scale. Benjamin Duke, an American scholar who has studied the Japanese educational system, concludes: "What is absent in far too many Japanese classrooms is the searching and probing for the spark of creativity, innovativeness, and originality. The Japanese educational system, some observers believe, is not preparing the students for the high-tech information age.
