A brief overview of cultural change research

This article briefly overviews research on cultural change.This article consists of three sections.The first section explains the background of cultural changes.Various substantial changes, including modernization and globalization, have occurred.Due to these changes, cultures that have been historically and traditionally inherited are gradually changing.The second section overviews the methodology of research on cultural change.It is not easy to empirically examine cultural changes.I introduce three major approaches to overcome these difficulties: analyzing archival data, conducting cross-temporal meta-analyses, and analyzing cultural products.Finally, the third section outlines studies on changes in individualism as an example of cultural change.It has been shown that various cultures, including Japanese culture, have become more individualistic.In contrast, it has also been reported that, in some respects, cultures have not become more individualistic.Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the moderating factors and boundary conditions of this discrepancy.