JAPAN: Culture After BUSHIDO

Japan fascinates the world — yet remains one of the most misunderstood countries on earth.

Why is silence valued over debate?

Why does consensus take so long?

Why do Japanese professionals apologize when they have done nothing wrong?

Japan: Culture After BUSHIDO answers these questions with clarity and depth.

In 1900, Inazo Nitobe's BUSHIDO revealed the soul of the samurai to the world. More than 125 years later, the samurai are gone — but their values are not.

Author Kohei Shinkai spent 40 years working across 60 countries as a product designer and business executive.

At the heart of this book is a rigorous, data-driven comparison of Japan against 25 countries — from the United States and China to Brazil and Belgium — using Hofstede's Six-Dimension Model of Culture. For each country, Shinkai pinpoints the value gaps most likely to cause friction and offers concrete, actionable solutions. This 25-country comparative analysis is what sets this book apart from every other guide to Japan on the market.

Yet this is far more than a business manual. The book journeys through Japan's cultural landscape — the world's oldest companies, the poetry of haiku, washoku and wabi-sabi, the roots of omotenashi hospitality — while confronting its challenges just as directly: the gender gap, low English proficiency, lagging digitalization.

■ Contents

Chapters 1–2 ground Japan's cultural distinctiveness in a global framework, using Hofstede's Six-Dimension Model of Culture.

Chapters 3–4 break down, country by country, why misunderstandings happen and how to address them — covering the 25 countries home to the largest Japanese expatriate communities: the US, Australia, China, Canada, Thailand, the UK, Brazil, Germany, South Korea, France, and more.

Chapter 5 ranks Japan's top 20 strengths and top 20 challenges as seen from a global perspective — ready-made talking points for explaining Japan to friends and colleagues abroad.

For everyone who works with Japan, visits Japan, or simply wants to understand one of the world's most fascinating and misunderstood cultures.