題目： The comparative study of happiness in JAPAN and USA: Differences in subjective well-being through the comparison of two versions of Shall We Dance?
氏名： 櫛引 友美子
担当教員： Mark H.B. Radford
Analyzing different forms of media, such as film and literature, can be an important means for understanding and analyzing differences in human thinking and behaviour due to culture. Based on this idea, I carried out a comparative study of happiness and subjective well-being between Japan and US through a comparison of the similarities and differences in the film, Shall we dance? through interviews with film crew and actors, and reviews. The original film was made in Japan in 1997, and remade in the USA, 2004. In the Japanese version of Shall We Dance?, the individual is described as leaving ‘bondage’. In contrast, in the American version of Shall We Dance? the ending describes the need for an individual to ‘combine with the others’, in order to achieve subjective well-being. In this thesis I have suggested that current theories of cultural differences (e.g. independent versus inter-dependent concept of self) can be used to account for the differences in the way happiness and subjective well-being are portrayed.However, as I have pointed out, the explanation is not as clear-cut as theories suggest. Values, thinking and behaviour can be interpreted according to both cultural interpretations of self and the context in which they occur. This in turns suggests a complicated interaction between culture and behaviour, and the need to look at cultural theories in different contexts.