In this previous project (especially promoted project") , Japan, United Kingdom, France, Germany and the United States (including Hawaii) were selected for the survey, and these five countries constituted a "chain" with cultural "linkages" among them. To render effective the cultural-link comparative analyses, the following procedure was followed. To establish the content of the questionnaire, researchers collected the necessary information on each nation and wrote questions that could be used identically or approximately identically across countries. The questions were then translated into bach language from Japanese, pilot studies were undertaken, the questions were back-translated, and ideas and opinions were exchanged with researchers in each country, leading finally to the construction of the questionnaire to be used in each country. Samples were drawn via the sampling design most appropriate Oor each country; and face- to"face interviews were conducted in each of the five nations. Data files, containing questions common to the five nations, were compiled from the data thus collected and analyses undertaken.

In addition to conventional statistical analyses, the quantification method - which clarifies ways of thinking from a dynamic perspective - was used to detect the common and unique elements within each nation's attitudinal structures. Not only did the analysis confirm previous findings and claims, it also led to detailed results and in-depth knowledge not otherwise obtained through conventional analytic methods, confirming therefore the effectiveness of the cultural-link survey analytic method for international comparison.

In the present project ("Pilot Study (A) ") , additional data were collected in Italy and the Netherlands, and effort was made to apply our cultural-link-based comparison. This is rather large as a `airport," but we think that it is necessary since a project can qualify as good scientific research, in the field of social sciences and humanities, is it has a clear methodology and provides a detailed and theoretically-informed description of the methods of data collection and data analyses, details of the analyses and of the conditions under which further tests should be conducted. Only when all this information is provided can a project facilitate the continuation of research. We will be very happy if this report is to be utilized to further develop this type of research, beyond the present one.