A friend posted a Newsweek article from late May headlined "Japan Ends Coronavirus Emergency With 850 Deaths and No Lockdown." Two commenters observed the Japanese were (pre-COVID) and are wearing masks at exponentially higher rates than the U.S. But there's more to it IMO 1/

Much of the mask wearing is attributable to collectivistic nature of the society (versus the US's highly individualistic orientation). It also could be due to... 2/

what @HofstedeInsight (a pioneer in cross-cultural analysis) classifies as "power distance," "uncertainty avoidance" and "long-term orientation." The two countries are wildly different. 3/

This is a really cool tool where you can compare countries along his various cultural dimensions. It's fascinating! https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/japan,the-usa/