a b c Kent, Pauline (1999). "Japanese Perceptions of "the Chrysanthemum and the Sword" ". Dialectical Anthropology. 24 (2): 181–192. doi: 10.1023/A:1007082930663. ISSN 0304-4092. JSTOR 29790600. S2CID 140977522 . Retrieved 20 August 2023.

In the rural areas, too, boys may visit girls after the household is asleep and the girl is in bed. Girls can either accept or reject their advances, but the boy wears a towel bound about his face so that if he is rejected he need feel no shame next day. The disguise is not to prevent the girl from recognizing him; it is purely an ostrich technique so that he will not have to admit that he was shamed in his proper person." Furthermore, historically, the feudal system as a ruling structure and the penetration of Confucian teachings from China spread the hierarchical patriarchal system to the warrior class in the family. The subsequent institutionalization of the Meiji period (1868-1912) spread the patriarchal family system throughout the country, creating a society in which it was easy for the authorities to convey the rules and regulations that people had to follow and the premise in the community(空気, kuki) in which they had to follow them, which may have led to a society that was increasingly concerned about others. jicho-suru, to self respect, to be prudent)” means to consider the factors that affect your situation and refrain from saying or doing anything that will be criticized by the public. It means to be cautious of the consequences of one’s actions. The Japanese society depicted in “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” is one that observes others, while at the same time following exemplary rules to avoid being criticized by others. This is a presentation of Japanese society today, too, many people still concerned about public opinion even now. There are still many people who choose their appearance, clothes, occupation, education, place of residence, etc. based on the reaction of others. i concetti portati alla luce e spiegati nel dettaglio non sarebbero mai stati assimilabili con una semplice osservazione sul campo, troppe sono le consuetudini radicate nei secoli di chiusura verso l'esterno e troppo diverse dal pensiero occidentale le motivazioni e le scelte esistenziali, motivo per cui si rese necessario ai tempi approfondire lo studio con un grado di accuratezza estremo al fine di evitare una catastrofe umanitaria senza precedentiSometimes it is easy to live by the rules usually determined but sometimes it is hard. In Japan, relationships with other people, the world and the community are important. Japanese manners and model rules of behavior do not apply in other countries. Kent, Pauline, "Misconceived Configurations of Ruth Benedict", Japan Review 7 (1996): 33-60. JSTOR 25790964.

I was wondering... Could a treatise on an entire country and its people, no matter how beautifully worded and presented, be objective if... For other example, in Japan, it is still customary for the attendees of weddings and funerals to wrap money and for the host to return the money. There is a standard amount of money for each, and if you deviate from it, you may be said to be embarrassed or have no common sense. Needless to say, Japan now is not like how Benedict saw it. Many aspects of the country's people and culture have evolved. Nevertheless, this book offers a good study of where the country was in the author's time. And what a chaotic time it was... Why do we have such a value system in Japan? For Japanese people, Life has peaks in childhoods and middle age, and downs in the rest. Adults love their children, but when children reach a certain age, they encourage to behave in a way that is accepted by the world as adults. Men and women are educated separately to instill in them a sense of their differences and roles.This book which resulted from Benedict's wartime research, like several other United States Office of War Information wartime studies of Japan and Germany, [6] is an instance of "culture at a distance", the study of a culture through its literature, newspaper clippings, films, and recordings, as well as extensive interviews with German-Americans or Japanese-Americans. The techniques were necessitated by anthropologists' inability to visit Nazi Germany or wartime Japan. One later ethnographer pointed out, however, that although "culture at a distance" had the "elaborate aura of a good academic fad, the method was not so different from what any good historian does: to make the most creative use possible of written documents." [7] Anthropologists were attempting to understand the cultural patterns that might be driving the aggression of once-friendly nations, and they hoped to find possible weaknesses or means of persuasion that had been missed. One of the best books ever about Japanese society . . . [A] thoughtful, nuanced study of the Japanese character.”— U.S. News & World Report According to Margaret Mead, the author's former student and a fellow anthropologist, other Japanese who have read it found it on the whole accurate but somewhat "moralistic". Sections of the book were mentioned favorably in Takeo Doi's book, The Anatomy of Dependence, but he is somewhat critical of her analysis of Japan and the West as respectively shame and guilt cultures, noting that while he is "disposed to side with her," she still "allows value judgements to creep into her ideas." [12] A curious feature of the book is that it is a distorted mirror to the USA, the study is largely a compare and contrast between the USA and Japan, after a while as a third party foreigner, the USA of the 30s and 40s seemed considerably odder and more strange than the Japan which Benedict was describing. Japanese sense of a proper hierarchy and dislike of profiteers who violated this seemed quite natural and proper from a UK perspective. While solemnly Benedict tells us that the Japanese have no concept of evil while Americans in addition to having to be at war with the evil in their natures, are full of resentment against things they have to do like sleeping, eating spinach and getting married.