Chapter 116 Question 105

Why do Japanese couples spend more on their wedding than American couples? (Tsuto Ito) On average, Japanese couples spend twice as much as American couples to celebrate their marriage.Although it costs more per guest to entertain in Japan than in the United States, the main reason for the huge cost difference is that Japanese couples tend to invite more guests.Why do Japanese weddings have to be so grand? Japanese couples typically invite colleagues, bosses, and other members of the community to their wedding, and the network is extensive.Local politicians are also often invited, even if they don't know the newlyweds at all.Even for a middle-income couple's wedding, most of the guest lists are between 300 and 500 people.

Japanese couples cast such vast networks in part because Japanese society relies heavily on informal social and business networks.The core of maintaining one's status in this network is to maintain social harmony, and peace is the most important thing.If the wedding does not invite people who think they should be invited, it is likely to cause a huge social barrier and endanger the status of the parties.So we can think of Japan's long wedding guest list as an investment in maintaining important social and business networks.Of course, this kind of network also exists in the United States, but it is far less important than Japan.

Per capita income is the most significant individual difference among countries.People with different incomes mostly make different choices, regardless of their cultural background. Some of the interesting international differences stem from differences in the opportunity costs of different occupations. There are also some differences in international behavior that are caused by different economic policies of various countries. Superficially similar products have interesting differences in how they are marketed in different countries. Some international differences arise from different motivations brought about by different social mores.