The World of the Japanese Mind: Conformity and Seken

This book investigates the source from which the pressure to conform arises in Japanese society. Even though the contemporary Japanese word for “society” (Shakai) has a history of 140 years, it does not include the concept of respecting the individual but refers mainly to social frameworks and institutional aspects. At the same time, the traditional Japanese terms for “society”, primarily Seken, that have been in use for 1,400 years have embraced human relationships of the members of the group.

The hypothesis of this book is that there is no “society” as such in Japanese people’s minds. By proposing a new model (the Hand-Carved Tripod Model) of conformity in Japan, the book shows the structure of the pressure to conform. The tripod is composed of ambiguous words, the sense of belonging, and the “air”, or understanding, that represents the unwritten rules and regulations of




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