Abstract
This study aimed to examine (1) whether people would accept stereotypical descriptions of the Japanese, which were typically observed among literature written by so-called Japanologists, at the “the Japanese (in general) ”level, but not at“an individual”level, and (2) whether such differences are greatest on descriptions of collectivistic tendencies. A Japanese Characteristics Scale, consisting of 45 five-point-rating scales, was constructed based on descriptions of the Japanese characteristics in 14 previous articles. A total of 226 college students of both genders were asked to respond to the scale on two distinct levels: “the Japanese” and the “an individual” level (operating as to “Myself”). As expected, the participants clearly discriminated between the two levels, i. e., they reported significantly higher scores at “the Japanese” than at “Myself”, especially in the sub-scale of the collectivistic tendencies. In addition, 20 students were interviewed to elucidate how these two levels were discriminated. Implications of these results were discussed.
