In this paper we consider trends in social psychological research in Japan with a dual aim: The first is to indicate the strong influence of American perspectives on Japanese social psychology since World War II and to view this influence in terms of its cultural context; the second is to describe, as the major exception to this domination, research on leadership, where the influence of Japanese culture has remained strong. These two trends in Japanese social psychology seem to reflect a historically typical process of development of Japanese society, involving the importation of foreign elements and their assimilation as determinants of new Japanese cultural forms.In 1989, the Japanese entered a new age, Heisei, after the death of the emperor, Hirohito. The previous era, Showa, added 64 years of dramatic records to a Japanese history of 2000 years. Historically, Japan has skillfully incorporated and modified foreign culture and disciplines into new ' 'Japanese'' versions; the Showa era included dramatic changes based on Westernization in many facets of the society. During this era, Japan instigated wars of aggression against Asian countries, under an imperialistic and militaristic government. The Japanese were subjects of the emperor Hirohito and were raised to sacrifice their lives for him. After the defeat in the World War U, in 1945, Japan was governed by the General Headquarters of the Allied Forces (G.H.Q.), and Japanese life changed drastically. Partly as a consequence of these changes, Japan achieved unusual growth and is now one of the world's most economically developed countries.Japanese social psychology has a history longer than Showa, beginning with the publication of Social Psychology by Tokutani in 1906, earlier than Ross MacDougall's (1908) "first text books". Thus, Japan and the United States initiated their social psychologies at about the same time and in similar ways. Both imported many of their ideas from Western European countries such
