Reciprocity thus characterized excludes wholly unilateral types of action, whether they are sacrifice and devotion, generosity and benevolence, dominance and exploitation, or compliance and submission. When apply in the Japanese cultural setting, reciprocity immediately suggests the concept of on. It might even be argued that on is a culture-bound notion of reciprocity for the Japanese. Under the initial stimulus of Benedict’s work (1946), several Japanese specialists have undertaken self-examinations of this concept (Sakurai 1961 ; M.Yoshida, Fujii, and Awata 1996 ; Lebra 1969).