This article from the Daily Yomiuri discusses wa or social harmony in Japan. I found the following excerpt to be very interesting:

The researchers found that the Japanese were more than twice as likely as the Americans to opt for the ambiguous response … One of the question topics with the highest rate of ambiguous results among Japanese respondents involved choosing between custom and “my way.” Fifty-two percent of Japanese were undecided or said it depends, compared to 9.5 percent of U.S. respondents.

This concept is still alive today in Japan and is said to stem from the 17 article ‘constitution’ written by Prince Shotoku during the Asuka period (around 600AD). This document is the first constitution written for Japan and is more a set of guidelines that the government officials and their subjects were required to abide by than a true constitution. The first article is translated by SaruDama.com as follows and can be deemed a sort of definition of wa:

Harmony should be valued and quarrels should be avoided. Everyone has his biases, and few men are far-sighted. Therefore some disobey their lords and fathers and keep up feuds with their neighbors. But when the superiors are in harmony with each other and the inferiors are friendly, then affairs are discussed quietly and the right view of matters prevails.

Another article is translated as follows:

To subordinate private interests to the public good–that is the path of a vassal. Now if a man is influenced by private motives, he will be resentful, and if he is influenced by resentment he will fail to act harmoniously with others. If he fails to act harmoniously with others, the public interest will suffer. Resentment interferes with order and is subversive of law.

Preserving the wa, or not making waves, is all important even at the expense of the self. This is why gaijin are often frustrated with the apparent indecisiveness of the Japanese but one shouldn’t assume that the Japanese don’t have an opinion. They are just waiting to make sure that everyone else has the same opinion before they ’stick their neck out’ and risk the wa.

Take a moment to read through the other articles of the 17 article ‘constitution’ at SaruDama.com. It provides a lot of insight into the long history and cultural foundation of Japan.