Hi S==
I enjoyed reading this great discussion over amae.
I would like to add a few points.
1) Is Dr. Doi’s theory valid?
I read Amae no Kouzou when I was 20. I thought that it is a great book. But I simultaneously wondered if amae is found only in Japan? I read Chrysanthemum and Sword when I was 15. I felt something that does not fit to my view over ourselves. It only emphasizes the differences found in Japanese culture from the American’s veiw point (as it was written for the military use). Later on, I came to know that the author had told her students not to read it. Dr. Doi’s view is apparently influenced by some past famous studies including Chrysanthemum and Sword. Nowaday studies over Japanese culture I sometimes read are very often indifferent about these classic studies. It is already found and proven that amae could also be found in some other cultures outside of Japan.
According to the result of World Value Survey, the data can be interpreted as that Japan has the least amae-type mind among the east Asian countries. Please take a look at my blog article that stores my past LinkedIn posts.
http://tales.msi-group.org/?p=557
2) Is amae something to fade away?
The answer depends on how you precisely define amae. But if you define it broadly as dependency to others particularly in the decision making process as well as the peer feeling to tolerate this kind of attitudes, amae may be wanted to be more apparent.
For example, the high school grads and the college grads used to follow the teachers’ opinions on which company they should apply for. And there were less students unemployed after graduation back then.
Now they are forced to decide by their own. They are abruptly told to research for an appropriate company for each of themselves. They are told to find their own appealing points to these companies. And they are told irresponsibly by the senior peers that they should envision their future and should have a dream. With little valid support for these missions, many fail to get a job and become nervous breakdown (or some even commit suicide).
Say 100 years ago, many of the youngsters followed seniors’ advice on who to marry. The children of the rich are still doing so. However, now that there are many gen-pops who believe in the true love myth and could not find so-called an ideal partner. They finally started to use database-oriented arranged marriage systems by giving up finding true-loves by themselves. According to my friends and my clients who do this business, most of the member usually follow the professional advice very strictly on who to marry.
Individualism overall sounds beautiful but it is very much inefficient and generates few winners with enormous number of losers. Looming structuralism criticizes this point and suggests that learning and following the structure of the society may do good. Well, this attitude here to give up self-decision and follow the seniors’ advice (and decisions in most of the cases) may appear very similar to amae depending on the versions of your definition of it.
So S==,
> However, a society is constantly evolving
> and I was ready to accept that concepts
> such as “amae” might fade away,
> especially now that we have entered
> the 21st century/age of globalisation.
I suspect that globalization, with so many people somewhat somehow tied together, may demand many people for giving up their narrow-minded immature decisions and for follow and obey those of the wise in the society. Thus I also suspect that amae will proliferate in some form from now on to realize efficient society with less number of losers.