Recently I was reading one of the Classics of Chinese civilization (Admonitions for the Yan Clan) from about 500AD, during it I realized that rice-farming civilizations (which are universally both communal and hierarchical) end up in a situation where the social role is more important than the individual's personality, and where people respect the role regardless of who occupies it. This has wide-spread implications and can explain a lot of what you see in East and SE Asia.
However, my question of the moment is; do you think the increased suicide rate of modern Japanese, Chinese and Koreans is due to a perceived lack of "proper place" in society? That the move to an post-industrial economy removes social roles and makes people feel lost in the world while their social structure makes them crave a specific relational context?