Japanese culture compared to Australian culture

I have continued my research into Japanese culture, this has actually included reading about their respective historical contexts. Japan really has been quite isolated historically and even today 99% of the population are Japanese, with the other 1% mainly comprised of Koreans and some Chinese. This historical context has actually made Japan quite culturally homogenous. On the contrary Australia is multicultural with a very short colonised history, this is not accounting for Aboriginal culture that has inhabited Australia for thousands of years. It could be argued that the Aboriginal culture in Australia used to culturally homogenous before Western invasion and colonisation took place. I haven't research that far into Australian culture yet. However, the two different historical contexts and culturally contexts will make for a very interesting comparison. I am also taking an engineering slant, focusing on education in the two countries and professional competencies seeing how much emphasis these institutions place on cultural awareness.

Japan has adopted many Western technologies, however, they have also managed to make them Japanese or do things the Japanese way. I am research into potential culture clashes for the Australian engineer when working in Japan and potentially with Japanese engineers. And vice versa for Japanese engineers in Australia.

I am also quite interested in investigating into whether there are any sociocognitive differences between Japanese engineers and Australian engineers. I know in education the Japanese are taught to rote learn whereas in Australia engineers are taught the basic concepts and then need to investigate and come to their own conclusions, the professor may not always be right. Furthermore, status generally ascribed in Japan so the university you go to is essential if you want to get a good and job and get in a good circle of contacts. In Australia status is more based on achievement so you do not have to go to the best university, generally to get a good job you need to show outstanding achievements. These type of cultural differences I believe do impact on the engineer that are produced in the respective countries and will be what I will be trying to prove. That engineers need to be aware that engineers from other countries will not always be the same and taught the same skills. Thus when working in global teams it is important to enhance the skills of each person and with cultural competency skills this will assist the renaissance engineer. Renaissance engineer was coined by Engels 2001, relating to the fact that nowadays an engineer needs to have more than just technical skills they also need to be socially and politically conscious.