Ethnographic studies offer a comprehensive analysis of a given society and its people. An analysis of an ethnography should indicate the manner in which evidence has been gathered, how that evidence has been analyzed and treated, what types of evidence are included and what types excluded, and so on. Two ethnographies of Japanese society may have very different approaches, reflecting the interests and abilities of their authors. Another reason for differences may be the background of the given authors themselves. Chie Nakane in Japanese Society offers a view from the inside, as it were, and seeks to explain the behavior of the Japanese by analyzing the society as it exists rather than with recourse to the historic social structures of the society. Ruth Benedict in The Chrysanthemum and the Sword is an external view that compares Japanese society to that of the United States, taking a historical perspective to show how certain social virtues and behaviors developed and why they persist.
There is no doubt that Americans have been very interested in Japanese society and particularly in Japanese business in recent years given the degree of competition the smaller nation has posed for the larger. There have been many analyses of Japanese business practices and Japanese society in an attempt to discern what aspects of Japanese culture might be responsible for Japan's success, and more particularly which of these elements might be adapted to the American system to improve American business performance. The Japanese industrial expansion since World War II has been considerable and has been noted by other industrialized nations around the world. Japan began from a position far behind the West, with her infrastructure devastated, and since has achieved a position of economic preeminence, challenging the United States and other industrialized nations for world leadership in innovation and industrial production, especially in high-tec...