American Japanese Culture Comprison

There are a vast amount of similarities and differences between the American and the Japanese cultures.   They are apparent through the different stages of life, from infancy through late adulthood.  
There are similarities in the choices of how and where to give birth in both cultures.   Choices can vary from hospitals to mid-wives.   Most commonly child birth takes place in a hospital.   Each culture has different beliefs on the use of medication though.   In the United States, women can choose to have an epidural or painkiller to help with the pain, or natural childbirth, in which no pain medication is used.   The Japanese are not liberal with pain medication during labor and delivery. Epidurals and narcotics are not usually used and c-sections are extremely rare. In the United States cesarean births increased from 20.7% in 1996 to 31.1% in 2006. Cesarean rates increased for women of all ages, race/ethnic groups, and gestational ages and in all states. Both primary and repeat cesareans have increased. (www.ncbi.nlm.gov/pubmed/18456070)
In Japan, “mothers and children co-sleep fpr several years- longer on average, than other world cultures.   The long period of infant co-sleeping seems to match with the high degree of social connectedness of Japanese culture,” (Miller, 2007).   Another similarity is the amount of sleep young children get.   “Children in Japan who are 3 or younger sleep for an average of 11 hours and 37 minutes, while those elsewhere in Asia average 12 hours and 16 minutes and tots in the United States, Europe and South America get 13 hours,” said Jodi Mindell, psychology professor at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, at a news conference in Tokyo.  
Education starts at a young age.   Both cultures have preschools in which children begin learning by social interaction.   There are many different types of early childhood centers in America.   They vary from daycares to preschools.   They can be run at churches, or through government departments...