SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IN JAPAN

In this paper we consider trends in social psychological research in Japan with a dual aim: The first is to indicate the strong influence of American perspectives on Japanese social psychology since World War II and to view this influence in terms of its cultural context: the second is to describe, as the major exception to this domination, research on leadership, where the influence of Japanese culture has remained strong. These two trends in Japanese social psychology seem to reflect a historically typical process of development of Japanese society, involving the importation of foreign elements and their assimilation as determinants of new Japanese cultural forms.