differences in culture: online personas, Japan vs. US

The hiddenness of the online Japanese face:
In Asian societies, says Peng (who worked at University of Beijing before coming to California), ’self-identity is more socially-diffused across important others rather than strictly bounded with the individual... We might crudely characterize the slogan of collectivism as “my in-group is important” while an interdependent self might be described as “my in-group is who I am.”
Imomus, Click opera