Introduction Culture is an immensely complex concept, which has been discussed by numerous philosophers, thinkers, and social activists throughout the history of the human race. Despite the fact that there are various interpretations of this phenomenon, it could be stated with certainty that culture largely influences the social, political, and economic life of a particular country to a significantly broad extent. Moreover, it is also evident that different countries have different cultural values. Historically, the difference between Western and Eastern cultural rites and customs has been widely recognized. It could be observed that in the majority of cases these two ways of organizing and maintaining a particular culture are considered in opposition to one another. However, another opinion is utterly expressed by various thinkers: Western countries can learn from the experience of Eastern cultures. One of the proponents of this opinion is T. R. Reid, a well-known journalist, who wrote a book that captures his experience of living in Japan. The author focuses primarily on the role of Confucianism as the primary foundation on which social, economic, and political relationships in the country are built. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the most important concepts discussed in the book and then to elaborate on possible ways of applying these ideas to American society as a means of ameliorating it. As the book certainly provokes various problematic and controversial questions, a personal perspective on such matters will be provided as well in order to develop a meaningful conclusion. General Overview of the Concepts Discussed in the Book First of all, it is essential to summarize the principal ideas that are expressed by Reid. It is important to notice that the author writes from a highly personal perspective. His observations of the Japanese societal mechanism, which is largely driven by the principles and tenets of Confucianism, are based primarily on his experience of living in Japan in the 90s. Therefore, personal bias, which has both positive and negative impacts on the objectivity and credibility of the author’s observations, is evidently present in the book. However, the role of the personal bias will be discussed later, as it is essential to give an overview of the book’s contents first. In the first chapter of the book, Reid gives basic premises on which the rest of his reasoning will be based. Before he and his family moved to Japan, Reid, as numerous other people in the same position, did not have the full idea of how different this country is from the United States (12). As the author describes his first impressions of the country, he mentions such aspects as uniformly dressed airport workers in Tokyo (as in opposition to casually dressed workers in America), Asian bazaars, which were colorful and fun, and where people sold exotic foods and other goods (13). However, the most important discovery which was made by the author is that Japan, as well as other countries in the Asian region to which Reid traveled a lot during his stay, was on the verge of a global change in the world’s economy and political situation (13). The author argues that the Confucian principles, which largely impact the everyday lives of millions of Japanese citizens as well as citizens of China