Dual Coding Theory and Japanese Culture

Dual Coding Theory, a photo by timtak on Flickr.

The above diagram (click image to see Japanese translation) is Paivio's Dual Coding Theory, of meaningful images and sounds.

It is interesting that scholars like Unger, Barthes, Saussure and Plato believe that only the sounds can have meaning (I think).

It seems to me that Japanese culture emphasises the right hand side of this diagram, whereas Western culture emphasises the left, to the point of claiming that only logogens exist, and that characters do not really mean anything without being translated or read into phonetic, logogens.