Are Americans more successful at building intercultural relations than Japanese? A comparison and analysis of acculturation outcomes in Japan

Various Western and Japanese sources in the literature have concluded that Japanese people, who live in a nation with comparatively less ethnocultural diversity than the U.S., lag behind Americans in their capabilities to develop positive intercultural relations. To test these assumptions, this study compared the quality of acculturation outcomes between Japanese and Americans in Japan. Japanese and American scores were calculated for five dependent measures used to operationalize quality of intercultural relations. Four dependent variables revealed no significant differences. For the variable of organizational investiture, Japanese had significantly higher scores, so data were analyzed to discern why. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi: 10.1186/2193-1801-3-716) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.