The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture

by Roger J. Davies

When people meet, they first try to determine the group to which the other belongs, such as their school or company, and their status within that group, rather than their personal traits.

Ambiguity is thus indispensable for maintaining harmony in Japanese life, where it has the quality of compromise.

For the Japanese, silence indicates deep thinking or consideration, but too much silence often makes non-Japanese uncomfortable. Whereas the Japanese consider silence as rather good and people generally feel sympathetic toward it, non-Japanese sometimes feel that it is an indication of indifference or apathy. Too many words, however, are a kind of pressure for many Japanese and make them nervous and ill-at-ease.

Truthfulness, sincerity, straightforwardness, or reliability are allied to reticence. Thus a man of few words is trusted more than a man of many words.

In high-context Japanese culture (Hall, 1970), direct verbal expression, especially negative forms of communication such as anger, hate, refusal, disagreement, and defiance are avoided: