A Study on the Structural Divergence and Organizational Psychological Dependence of Excel Use in Japan Three-tier structure of design philosophy, report culture, and responsibility avoidance

This paper analyzes the structural gap between the original design philosophy of Microsoft Excel and Japanese practice from psychological, cognitive, and social perspectives. In Japan, Excel has become established not as a "calculation and analysis tool" but as a "form creation and writing tool", which presents a unique aspect that can be called Galapagos evolution. Furthermore, this paper proposes an organizational psychological structure that goes beyond mere IT literacy issues behind this disparity—that is, the hypothesis that reliance on Excel functions as a "sanctuary" for avoiding responsibility and postponing decision-making. Based on this hypothesis, it is predicted that Excel updates and outages will not cause organizational panic, but rather will be quietly absorbed in the form of "meetings without data".