Blame vs shame culture - a one-sided opinion...
It is apparently said in Japan that eastern culture is a shame culture, and the west is a blame culture. While clearly life is neither as clear-cut, nor as black and white, but there are some aspects of this that I can relate to.
It is also a little hyperbolic to give specific examples to illustrate a generality like this, but Sony executives bowing in apology to 77m accounts being compromised was something that comes to mind. True enough, it was an egregious lapse of security, and it (rightly) cost the company dear in reputation, but I've never known any other company to so publicly apologise. I do with sometimes that Zuckerberg would have apologised for some of Facebook's transgressions.
Famously, Japan also has a relatively low crime rate - it is said that it is not because the people are intrinsically good that, for example, that a wallet left on a public transport will likely find its owner again, but because Japanese people are very conscious of how other people may judge them. On the other hand, here in the UK, we have expressions like "Finders keepers, losers weepers" or "Possession is 9/10ths of the law" (whatever that's supposed to mean).
However much of this is true, one thing I do feel strongly about, is that there is a distinct lack of ownership when it comes to mistakes. People in the UK are all to comfortable to blame others, rather than take responsibility, and even the word "sorry" appears to be becoming more and more taboo.
Sad, but it used to be a cliche that British people would apologise; like when someone bumps into you, and you say sorry to them. Now holding a door open for a stranger will rarely elicit even an acknowledging nod, let alone a smile or a simple thank you.
