big picture programmer vs meticulous technician

Uproar stirred up from Japan regarding to China’s decision to ban vessales going through a line. After Japan’s protests, Chinese government admitted it’s a technical mistake and recalled the decision.

Weather it is a technical mistake or other errors, we have no means to find out. However, the attitude towards to human errors find quite differently between Chinese and Japanese.

Certainly, to err is human beings, there is always space for mistakes. Japanese people tend to go extra length to make sure no mistakes occurred in a process, even there is one, and she usually recognizes it and finds ways to correct it. Even the mistake is beyond her capability, she will go to a supervisor to address it. In Japanese culture I know, there is no shame on making mistakes, but a shame on not correcting it immediately.

Chinese tend to work other way around, she will make sure a whole process run first, if it doesn’t, she will come back to find out any mistakes. Major mistakes that prevent a smooth running will be correctly immediately, while minor ones usually will be overlooked.

Bottom line is, Chinese is more a big picture programmer, and Japanese is more a meticulous technician.