Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!pyramid!octopus!avsd!govett
From: govett@avsd.UUCP (David Govett)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: Bias on IQ tests
Message-ID: <111@avsd.UUCP>
Date: 18 Apr 88 17:43:55 GMT
References: <49690@sun.uucp>
Organization: Ampex Advanced Technology Division, Redwood City, CA
Lines: 18


> Does anyone have a reference showing that Japanese, either as a race
> or as a culture "have a very bad problem with creativity"?   Come to that,
> does anyone have a reference to Japanese acknowledging that?   Unless
> they do, I am inclined to write this off as unthinking racism.   Everything
> I have seen recently in science and engineering leads me to think that Japanese
> have absolutely no problem with creativity, and I think that the onus is
> on someone who thinks that they do to produce some evidence for it.
> 

Many Japanese have commented on the rigidity of the Japanese educational
system and the consequent lack of creativity.  It's difficult to discuss
creativity objectively because it's difficult to define and quantify.

However, one can generalize in the area of science and technology.
It's difficult to think of many scientific "breakthroughs" or 
technologies that originated in Japan.
Until that changes, Japan will remain subject to charges of freeloading 
on the basic research of the U.S. and Europe.