Originally posted by Maciamo
Yes and no. I believe that every cultural group has its own characteristics. Actually, that may just be a side-effect of playing "Sid Meier's Civilization" where each civilization has a set of characteristics such as scientific, militaristic, religious, commercial, expansonist, etc.

However, I think that we should go a bit deeper than that and see what really differentiate Japanese mentality from (some) others and I thought that the practical (i.e non theoritical) aspect was one of them.
I think you are trying to oversimplify something which is very complicated across a broad group. That is doing you and the group a disservice and can be dangerous. This type of behaviour leads to prejudice and racism.

I am not for a second suggesting this of you, rather that smaller minds will use statisitics and/or annecdotes like these to justify their own prejudices.

Why are you trying to box in a nation? Why not just try to see the beauty in the indivuals that you are fortunate enough to meet?

Inate intellect, scientific ability and/or creativity is in the realm of the indivual not of a racial or cultural group.

Discounting somebody's ability based on racial or cultural group before you have met them is prejudice.

I noticed that you started this thread on another board and somebody commented that scientific method is forming a hypothesis and then testing it for validity. You are trying to find evidence to support your hypothesis which is non-scientific.

Food for thought.