Abstract

A survey has been made on Japanese and American business expatriates who are currently working in China in order to explore the relationship between cultural distance and expatriate adjustment. Based on the reviewed literature and the theory, the authors put forward two hypotheses which are tested by a specially designed 34-item questionnaire distributed to 41 Japanese subjects and 53 American subjects. The results partly prove the expectation that cultural distance is negatively correlated with adjustment of business expatriates. The Japanese business expatriates working in China demonstrate higher degree of adaptability than the American business expatriates in general adjustment and interaction adjustment, but not in work or psychological adjustment. 

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