In Japan, differences of opinions are regarded that a work or a project in progress is not going well along. In order to get along well with each other, Japanese people think it important to refrain from expressing what they really want to indicate during discussion.
In contrast, in western culture, there is a common understanding that people must have different opinions individually and express what they really believe in aggressively to somebody with whom you discuss without a fear for clash of opinions to make significant relationship each other. In such a society, language power has a strong influence. There are a lot of provers that look up to speaking in English language
- The voice of the people is the voice of God
- The pen is mightier than the sword.
- Words cut more than swords.
- Where there is whispering there is lying.
- Don’t beat about the bush.
- Conversation teaches more than meditation.
Contents
The difference between English and Japanese is the difference between ideograph and phonogram
Japanese language which is incorporated with a lot of ideograph Kanjis is rather suitable for reading and writing. In contrast, English is phonogram suitable for speaking and listening. This fact is proved by a radio and TV.
For example, when you listen to Japanese TV news with multiplex broadcasting, English voice that comes out behind announcer’s presentation is as fast as it already finishes reading while Japanese announcer is still reading aloud.
Japanese announcers take twice as much time as a English narrator to tell all the things in TV. This difference is like the difference between a machine-gun and a hand-gun.
In contrast to western people having strong assertion, Japanese people don’t prefer assertion but modest suggestion. Japanese expression is lukewarm and ambigous because Japanese people don’t like using clear logic. From the viewpoint of assertiveness, Japanese people’s way of thinking and western people’s are worlds apart. The following quotes are from Japanese unique proverb.
- The Elegance of Silence
- Who knows most, speaks least.
- Silence is better than speech
- Out of the mouth comes evil
- Loquacious person has no elegance
- Tacit understanding
Japanese non-productive attitude towards discussion
However, Japanese people love talking with someone in private. They talk and talk gossip session and rumors every day. When they go to drink, they take their mind off their stressful work environment by speaking ill of their boss but once they are at meeting or conference, they hesitate to assert their opinions to the boss and accept the boss’s opinion completely. This is Japanese.
In western people’s view, these Japanese behaviors were expressed as “3S” in the past. Globalism has penetrated Japanese society these days compared to the period of time when this expression was used. So this is now dead word.
“3S” is “Silence”, “SMILE”, “SLEEP”. These are what Japanese worker did during the meeting.
Japanese people was thought to have non-productive attitude towards meeting or conference where people should be serious about finding one solution by making multiple different opinions crush each other.
There are few Japanese who despise meeting like this nowadays. Even so, Japanese are really bad at discussing with someone. One of the reason that speaking ability has not been cultivated among Japanese so far comes from cultural background.
In vertically structured society, we Japanese have a custom that opinions of senior or boss need to be listened silently and this has prevented us from cultivating this ability.
In Japanese society, there is a tendency to keep such a person who assert opinions aggressively at distance as whom is ready to comment on every subject. In contrast, people who don’t assert opinions are respected as one of proverbs express this situation as “Who knows most, speaks least”. Japanese people tend to respect a person who is compassionate and reticent.
Why do Japanese people express so ambiguously
Japanese people tend to ask for understanding of what they try to say to someone to talk to from the situation and atmosphere. There are a lot of expressions formed by Japanese tacit understanding attitude.
So basically, Japanese abbreviate words and sentences on the premise that a person to talk to should understand what they mean.
Abbreviation is used frequently in everyday linguistic representation in Japan. For example, greeting language like “Ohayo-gozaimasu”, “Konnichiwa, “Sayonara” was made by abbreviating something followed by those greeting words.
| Japanese Greeting words | literal meaning |
|---|---|
| Ohayo-gozaimasu | You wake up early…… |
| Konnichiwa | Today is……. (What are you up to today?) |
| Sayonara | If you do so…… |
| Sumimasen | It is regretful that….. |
One of a familiar expression which you might know very much is “Domo”, Domo is a very convenient word which you can use whenever and wherever. Domo literally means “somehow”.
For example, in the following situation, there is such a meaning behind it.
Domo Arigatogozaimasu →→→→ Thank you very much, I somehow finished this with your help.
Japanese people subconsciously abbreviate what he/she tries to say after “Domo” so when you say “Domo” to someone, a person whom you talk to catch what kind of meaning is behind it from the situation and atmosphere. This is Japanese tacit understanding ability.
The same thing happens to naturalized words from other countries.
| Naturalized words from other countries | Japanese unique expression |
|---|---|
| Television | Televi → Terebi |
| Animation | Anime |
| Handkarchief | Handkarchi → Hankachi |
However, using abbreviation too much makes this language ambiguous and lack clarity of original words. Ambiguous expressions come from here.
Ambiguous expressions were not only formed by this abbreviation process but the emotion that people don’t want to hurt anyone. In short, if you say “No”, that would sound unnecessarily harsh. To avoid this, Japanese people apply a strategy to make someone to talk with to realize their denial by holding off a conclusion as much as possible.
What you need to pay attention to when you discuss with Japanese
Japanese people accord what people think priority over one solution. Japanese people accord perfect consensus priority over productivity. Japanese people accord processes priority over results. To make good result in business scenes in Japanese society, key solution is how much you can win emotional consensus from co-workers.
If you don’t learn this, your job is going to be overwhelmingly unproductive in Japan. For example, if only boss’s opinion has big influence on every single decisions, your principal battlefield is not meeting room because impression has heavier weight on decision than your constructive opinion in consensus society .
Your principal battlefield should be a office where you work with the boss every day. Arousing and collecting good impressions and evaluations from boss is a shortcut to getting your constructive opinions to adopt in the meeting.
You may think this is really stupid but this is how you are accepted in Japan.