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The prevailing modern perspective is expressed by Princeton Psychologist Leon Kamin, who says, "Certainly Nakasone knows that blacks on the average score lower on IQ tests than whites. But we do not have the technology . . . that would reveal any differences in the relationship of genotypes (genetic makeup) to intelligence." In fact, most scholars today believe that so-called intelligence and achievement differences stem largely from environmental factors. For example, a study of children in the Boston and Philadelphia-Balti more regions showed white and black youngsters of the same social stratum scoring only a few points apart, indicating that income level or "class" affects such evaluations. In his 1981 book The Mismeasure of Man, Harvard Biologist Stephen Jay Gould maintained that even if intelligence is inheritable, there are such wild swings of hereditary traits within groups that the "average difference between whites and blacks in America might still only record the environmental disadvantages of blacks." Other scholars argue that most standardized tests were originally constructed by middle-class whites to be taken by middle-class whites. Thus they lack validity for measuring other ethnic and social groups, including Japanese.
Some of Japan's best and brightest agree. Says Tamotsu Senogoku, director of the Japanese Youth Research Institute: "It is simply outlandish to think that you could generalize the state of intelligence or even education with but a few words." He points out that in Japan, discipline and expectations for the young are much more stringent in schools and in family life than they are among Americans. In the U.S., schools run an average of 180 days a year. In Japan, they run 240 days and assign heavier course loads and homework. Hence the Japanese superiority in, for example, early math -- though in cognitive capacity (the bedrock ability to learn) no difference shows between youngsters of the two nations.
Significantly too, in a monolithic nation like Japan, where more than 90% of the people consider themselves middle class and the ethic is to conform to society rather than challenge it, the dropout rate among high school seniors is 2%, in contrast to 27% in the U.S. Yet Japanese scholars view the regimented conformity of their schools with increasing concern, fearing that it stifles creativity. Says Joetsu University's Shibuya: "Consider the number of Nobel Prizes won so far by Japanese -- fewer than ten. The number in the U.S.? More than 100." Steven Jobs, who founded Apple Computer on a shoestring and no college degree (he dropped out), is an example of the kind of creativity that American society can foster; Jobs' achievements would be unthinkable in Japan, where no degree equals no such chance. Notes Harvard's Chall: "Their computer managers . . . are trying to emulate the more freed-up American approach."