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The Japanese are also aware that, once in college, their students tend to slack off -- possibly out of relief from surviving their earlier regimen -- while Americans turn up the heat. As a result, the top 10% of U.S. students equal or surpass the achievements of their Japanese counterparts. With such contrasts in mind, the Research Institute's Senogoku concludes, "There are, in fact, differences in education between our countries. And as far as I am concerned there should be differences." Hiroshi Minami, one of the most respected Japanese psychologists, concurs. Nakasone, he says, "fails to & understand the essence of American culture" -- namely pluralism, accompanied by the same defensive pride in that pluralism that Japanese nationalists feel in their homogeneous society. Sums up Professor Shibuya: "The question of which side is doing better or worse than the other is such a demanding question that all I can say is that political personages would do best to stay out of it all the time."