The smart way to learn about the world is this: Start with no conclusions. Draw in data. Form a tentative conclusion from those. Revise conclusion as new data require.

The common "culturology" way to do it: Start with a conclusion. Welcome all data that fit. Label data that don't fit as "exceptions" or "a paradox".

The mistake is called confirmation bias. Here's a really trivial example – meaningless by any measure, but worth pointing out because, hey, nice pizza ad!   read more »

In discussions of culture, why do so many people favor extreme, polarized claims over reality?

It's a common happening, though here I write after coming across a very minor example. I happened across a report on a designer's stunning blend of traditional kimono and African fabrics – the Wafrica kimono. The results are beautiful, and I can appreciate the creator's thought (unless I'm misreading) that the end result is its own object, not a subcategory of arbitrarily-labeled cultures:  read more »

So I was watching an old recorded show about participants in the most recent (?) Tchaikovsky piano competition held in (I assume) Russia. I wasn't watching too closely, or I could tell you more about the program and event; sorry, I only caught a few moments here and there.  read more »

The latest JIN Newsletter discusses the high-tech toilets made by Japanese companies like TOTO. All fine and good, except for one comment stumbling into culturology:

It is ironic that Japan, that imported the very concept of sit-down toilets from the West, is now at the center of cutting edge lavatory technology.  read more »

Sorting through more old newspaper clippings, I find an interview ("Helping creative talent to bloom", Japan Times, November 03, 1991) with an art exhibition organizer, Kazuko Koike, who speaks about the 1991 Umbrellas environmental art project by Christo that placed hundreds of huge umbrellas throughout valleys in California and Japan.  read more »

I have an old clipping from Letters to the Editor (Japan Times, February 04, 1995), in which reader Kazuya Izaku of Saitama Pref. displays an all-too-rare sensibility on the matter of "Japanese" actions in the wake of the terrible Kobe earthquake. Here's an excerpt:

From the terrible tragedy of the Kobe earthquake, at least one piece of good news has emerged: Individualism in Japan is alive and well.  read more »

I see that Wired magazine has an all-things-Japan correspondent who, unfortunately, is a wee fond of the easy generalizations.

In Meet Hiroyuki Nishimura, the Bad Boy of the Japanese Internet:

"Japan is a nation where the 3:17 train arrives every day at 3:17 — not 3:16 or 3:18..."  read more »

What's all this about robots?

Heard this one yet?

"While Westerners harbor cultural fears toward robots, Japanese culture fosters a special relationship with robots, welcoming them into society as equal partners."

Oy vey. It's time to send this idiotic myth to the scrapyard, once and for all.  read more »