In this paper we argue that differences in the conceptualization of individual actors in networks provide the most parsimonious explanation for differences that occur between American and Japanese views of sanctions and between actors in different role relationships within each society. Our empirical tests drew on respondents' hypothetical punishment choices and punishment rationales in surveys of Detroit, Michigan, and Yokohama and Kanazawa, Japan. As predicted, American views of punishments for everyday misdeeds were more likely to favor isolation or retribution and American rationales for imprisonment were significantly more retributive than in Japan. Within each culture, offenses between intimates were least likely to evoke isolative or retributive punishments whereas offenses between strangers were most likely to do so. We conclude by considering alternatives to our structuralist explanation of these findings and by suggesting some implications of legal culture for dispute resolution in the United States versus Japan.