Why you might feel relaxed in Japan

I have been investigating the difference between Japanese people and people mainly from the Western world, and found out one thing.

In the Western world such as Europe and the United States, people are always required to have their own opinions, to decide on their own thoughts, and act to express their own characteristics. I assume this might be developed throughout the history of individualism, which Alan McFarlane wrote in his book, "The Origins of English Individualism". According to his analysis, individualism has been developed for nearly a millennium since the 11th century in England.

In contrast, Japan is known as a country where individualism is very weak. Japanese people often call this characteristic as "Mura-Shakai" which actually means "Village-society", where everyone knows each other and cannot act selfish in the community, otherwise be punished. Of course villages in Japan exists still now but this characteristic has been much more mild, but certain amount of Japanese people still feels uncomfortable to express their own thoughts or opinions to the public.

So I came upon a hypothesis that maybe foreigners visiting Japan feels relaxed and somewhat released from pressure, to always express and be him(her)self between the atmosphere of Japanese people.

Also the safety level of Japan should be one of the reasons for the people feeling relaxed and secured when visiting Japan.

Next time I want to dive into the historical aspect of why Japanese culture has been developed in such way.