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Testing an argument of convergence on a sample of employed males in Japan and the United States, this paper compares young (18-24 years) with older (45-55 years) workers within each country on work-related attitudes, education and employment, mobility, interest in the company, characteristics of superiors, and job satisfaction. Comparisons of these attitudes are also made within age-group cross-nationally. Our general finding, which is upheld when company size, type of job, and educational attainment are controlled for, is that cultural diversity is (still) a better explanation than convergence when applied to work-related attitudes. Aging per se seems to have some similar effects in both societies, e.g., a positive relationship between age and work satisfaction. Attitudes affected more by historical changes in work organization, however, exhibit stronger cultural differences than age differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A state-centered perspective in studies of revolutions holds that international pressures contribute to outbreak of revolutions, assuming that the magnitude and intensity of international pressures vary from case to case. This study argues that in the paradigmatic communist revolutions of the 20th century, such as the Russian and Chinese Revolutions, the role of the exogenous factor of war was paramount. After outlining a war-centered framework for studying communist revolutions, this research shows how the devastating experience of total war against Japan (1937-1945) undermined the Kuomintang state in China and created structural conditions for the communist takeover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public consciousness of sexual harassment, or sekuhara, emerged much later in Japan than in the United States. This article, the first comparative study of sexual harassment in the two nations, explores how consciousness of a new legal category diffuses across nations and begins to take root in younger cohorts. Analyses of the U.S. General Social Survey and the Japanese Survey on Working Women's Consciousness show how age cohorts entering the labor force following major equal opportunity legislation report more sexual harassment than do older cohorts. We first conduct a separate nation-specific analysis and then pool the data sets to test for national differences with cross-product interaction terms. The effects of age, income, and job satisfaction all differ significantly between the United States and Japan. Family and life course factors are also important predictors, particularly in Japan. We interpret these results based on the extant literature on sexual harassment, legal consciousness over the life course, and comparative research on workplace behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]