Another important cultural difference I observed was in the acceptance of robots. Japan has robots everywhere. They are shopping assistants, hotel receptionists and even waiters. They even have robotic pets to be used in elderly-care facilities! These robots are not particularly good at their jobs, but they are usually cute and make you smile. However, in America, whenever people talk about robots it is either about robots taking over the world or robots taking people's jobs. What is it about Japanese culture that makes it so accepting of robots?
There are multiple factors that contribute to this. One has to do with American pop culture versus Japanese pop culture. In American films, when you see robots, they are usually big, scary machines trying to kill humans and take over the world, like those in Transformers or The Matrix. On the other hand, in Japanese anime (cartoons) or manga (comic books), robots are people's friends. In fact, in the Japanese version of Calvin and Hobbes, called Doraemon, Doraemon is a robot that helps support a child who is getting bullied in school. Another factor has to do with employment. In Japan, it is very rare for someone to get fired. Unless you do something awful, you usually work at a company for your whole life. However, in the U.S., it is much more common for people to get fired.
