ABSTRACT
SOME curious misconceptions exist both among Japanese and Westerners concerning the differences in their respective social organizations. It is commonly asserted that whereas in the West the individual is the social unit, in Japan it is the family group. This supposed contrast is then made to serve as a basis for generalizations about differences in the social institutions and social ideals of East and West. Some writers emphasize the dominant place of self-interest and materialism in European and American society, and the importance of the concept of individual rights in the development of social and political institutions, whereas Japan, they say, is distinguished by the subordination of the individual to the welfare of the family, group or State, and by a scant regard for calculations of personal loss or gain. As a first approximation to the truth, this view may be accepted; but it cannot be regarded, without important qualifications, as a really satisfactory interpretation. The Japanese in discussing this matter are inclined to confuse the legal and political aspects of a country’s life with its social structure, and to assume that the social relationships described in the works of utilitarian philosophers are identical with those existing in modern Europe. Now it is true that law and politics in the West are concerned with the individual citizen and his rights and duties, and for the enlargement of knowledge about certain economic processes it is convenient to assume the existence of an atomistic society. But man is a social being in the West as in Japan. There, as everywhere, his life has its roots in the family, and he pursues his ends in association with his fellows in various kinds of groups and, finally, in the State.
