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Message: [QUOTE="Elizabeth, post: 19096, member: 1178"] Here is the original thread for everyone who missed it. The jumping off point was to show how many fewer Nobel prizes have been captured, proportional to their populations, by Japanese than Americans or Europeans (although a comparision to the rest of Asia may be more telling). Which just goes to show that since creativity and scientific reasoning are to some extent nurtured in an environment of vibrant philosophic debate, confrontation of ideas, individual expressiveness, etc and Japan is weak on these......ergo generally speaking they are great mechanics and engineers but don't produce the academicians, innovators or risk-takers that win these sorts of prizes. And there is probably some truth to that. I'm just not sure how to explain the so-called "unusually kind and gracious" part of the Japanese character (while on the subject of generalizations) :D. One explanation I've seen bandied around in some older history texts is the nature of ancient Japanese divinities being particularly amiable -- not only awe-inspiring and powerful, but tending towards the "lovely and pleasant" -- such as worship of rocks and streams, flowers and trees, etc. There may also be interesting contrasts with the Chinese in how imported philosophies such as Buddhism and Confusionism were altered by the Japanese to better suit their more practical and less speculative or dry "natural temperment." And I actually don't have the background to refute such notions, but was more interested in the translation for personal reasons. To show my boyfriend, who is a software engineer (with fascinating opinions on politics and religion to boot ). :p [/QUOTE]

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