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Japanese Communication in Intercultural Encounters: the Barrier of Status-Related Behavior

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Japanese Communication in Intercultural Encounters: the Barrier of Status-Related Behavior International Journal of Intercultural Relations 26 (2002) 339–361 Japanese communication in intercultural encounters: the barrier of status-related behavior Rotem Kowner* Department of Multidisciplinary Studies, The University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel Abstract Many Japanese perceive communication with non-Japanese as an unpleasant experience and tend to avoid it. To account for this ‘‘foreigner-complex’’, scholars have advanced a number of explanations based on Japan’s isolation, linguistic barriers, and the interpersonal shyness of the Japanese people. Using two surveys, this article seeks to provide a supplementary approach to Japanese communication difficulties with foreigners and Westerners in particular: That is, the problem of status violation. The present study shows that in an encounter with foreigners of equal status, Japanese perceive the communication style of their counterparts not only as highly distinct from their own, but also as similar to the communication style of high-status Japanese in an encounter with lower-status compatriots. Based on these findings, it is argued that during intercultural encounters Japanese tend to feel that their social status is violated, to propagate this feeling through their culture, and ultimately to dislike and to be apprehensive about such encounters. r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Many Japanese tend to perceive communication with non-Japanese as an embarrassing and unpleasant, if not frightening experience. Individual Japanese have expressed this sentiment on numerous occasions since the forced opening of Japan to the West in 1854. An early example of this attitude can be found in the autobiography of the prominent educator and entrepreneur, Fukuzawa Yukichi. Upon his arrival to the United States in 1860, Fukuzawa ‘‘yturned suddenly into a shy, self-conscious, blushing ‘bride’’’. Years later this memory was still vivid, and the contrast, he noted, ‘‘was indeed funny, even to myself’’ (Fukuzawa, 1981, p. 114). In modern times as well, the diplomat Kawasaki Ichiro acknowledged, Japanese communication difficulties have lingered. The Japanese, Kawasaki wrote, ‘‘are shy and self-effacing peopley Apart from the language difficulty, the Japanese usually *Tel.: +972-4953-1879; fax: +972-4824-9155. E-mail address: [email protected] (R. Kowner). 0147-1767/02/$ - see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 4 7 - 1767(02)00011-1 340 R. Kowner / International Journal of Intercultural Relations 26 (2002) 339–361 find the work in such cosmopolitan groups a severe mental strain’’ (Kawasaki, 1969, p. 58). 1. Accounts of Japanese communication difficulties The difficulties Japanese experience in communicating with foreigners have not escaped the eyes of scholars, Japanese and foreigners. Over the years they have advanced various explanations to account for this phenomenon. 1.1. Geopolitical isolation Perhaps the most common explanation concerns the fact that Japan is an ‘‘island- country’’ (shimaguni). Living on an isolated archipelago 180 km distant from the closest continental shore has evidently affected Japanese history by preventing extensive contacts with the country’s neighbors. This geographical reality was enhanced by isolationist political regime, which closed Japan’s border almost hermetically. During the period of isolation (1640–1854), native patterns of interpersonal behavior underwent an elaborate institutionalization. Bennett and McKnight (1966) argued that the formalized rules and codes of communication developed then were actually tightened after the opening of Japan and disseminated to the rest of the population. Moreover, the majority of Japanese had neither been in contact nor even seen non-speakers of Japanese until the end of the 19th Century, in many cases it was much later. During the formative pre-modern period, many of them had not been in contact even with their more remote Japanese- speaking compatriots due to travel restrictions. 1.2. Linguistic barriers The Japanese language, so remote linguistically from Indo-European languages, has been viewed as another source of Japanese miscommunication with foreigners. The fact that most foreigners cannot speak Japanese, the noted Japanese critic Eto Jun (1977) argued, means that Japanese have to speak a language of which they have poor command and may even be exposed to a situation where they would be regarded as different from the people around them. The performance of Japanese in various language tests seems to prove this notion. Toward the end of the 1990s Japan’s rank in TOEFL average scores declined to 180th out of 189 nations taking the test (Inoguchi, 1999). 1.3. National character Several scholars have looked into the supposedly psychological idiosyncratic character of the Japanese in search of an answer. Eto (1977), for example, focused on the shyness (hazukashisa) Japanese feel when approached by foreigners speaking a foreign language as a major barrier in their communication. This shyness is the result R. Kowner / International Journal of Intercultural Relations 26 (2002) 339–361 341 of the fear of failing in a mode of communication one believes one has to master but in reality does not. Viewing the level of English education in Japan, it is no wonder Japanese experience shyness, especially when communicating with foreigners in the presence of other Japanese. Eto also associated Japanese homogeneity with communication difficulties. He contended that because the Japanese are one of the most homogeneous peoples there is a tacit assumption in their lives that other individuals are an extension of one’s self, that one’s own perceptions do not differ markedly from those of others, whereas Westerners base their lives on the premise that others naturally feel differently about things. Because of this homogeneity there is limited need for explanations during conversations, and the Japanese ‘‘are able to guess at each other’s feelings from facial expressions, movements of the eyes and the slightest gestures, and their conjectures are not mistaken’’ (Eto, 1977, p. 75). 1.4. General incompetence in verbal communication Scholars have long noted that Japanese people tend to experience difficulties also when communicating with their compatriots. Hence, the problem of communication with foreigners is only an extension of a general problem of communication. Several cross-cultural studies have supported this notion, showing that Japanese exhibit a high level of communication apprehension also within their own culture. Klopf (1984) administered the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA; McCroskey, 1970) to students from Japan, China, Korea, Micronesia, the Philippines, Australia, and the United States. Among the seven national samples, the Japanese students displayed the highest level of apprehension (see also Keaten, Kelly, & Pribyl, 1997). 2. Interpreting accounts of Japanese communication difficulties Although the explanations mentioned above may account for part of the communication difficulties manifested by Japanese when interacting with foreigners, they do not touch, we argue, the core of the problem. First, populations of other island nations, some of them even more isolated than Japan, do not express such acute stress over contact with foreigners. Moreover, the ‘‘foreigner complex’’ is not omnipresent. Japanese do not exhibit mounting tension when communicating with people from Asian countries. As for the isolation policy, this has not existed for about 150 years, a period long enough to transform Japan into an ultra-modern state and to alter almost any social custom. Second, if competence in a foreign language is the issue, one may be puzzled by the tendency of many Japanese to resort to English even when the foreign speaker’s Japanese is better than the Japanese speaker’s English. Foreigners staying in Japan complain frequently about this, as Australian linguist Jiri Neustupny noted: ‘‘One asks a question in (reasonably fluent) Japanese but the reply comes back in (broken) English’’ (Neustupny, 1987, p. 87). The tendency to speak English with foreigners 342 R. Kowner / International Journal of Intercultural Relations 26 (2002) 339–361 may account for McCroskey, Gudykunst, and Nishida’s (1985) findings of no significant difference in the level of communication apprehension Japanese report when speaking Japanese and when speaking English (see also Gudykunst, Nishida, Koike, & Shiino, 1986). In fact, one study even found the opposite reaction. When speaking English, Japanese sit closer to each other than when speaking their native language (Sussman & Rosenfeld, 1982). Finally, communication apprehension probably impedes a relatively higher proportion of individuals in Japan when communicating with their compatriots than is the case in many other countries. Nevertheless, the level of apprehension seems much higher and more prevalent when Japanese communicate with foreigners than with their compatriots, so this explanation does not seem to provide a full account of the problem. 3. Status violation as a supplementary cause While previous explanations of Japanese difficulties in contact with foreigners hold a certain kernel of truth, the main contention of this article is that the essence of the problem lies in non-verbal as well as verbal differences concerning status recognition. The Japanese code for communicating social status differs substantially from the codes common in foreign countries, of the West in particular, to the extent that Japanese perceive
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