You can't communicate what is in your heart even if you can with your language

Reporting Japan's cross-culture frontline by reviewing Hiragana Times 20th year

You will often hear the phrase, "You can communicate what is in your heart even if you can't with your language." This is often true during superficial exchanges between people traveling overseas. However, when it comes to complicated matters such as international marriage and business, many people are disappointed as they cannot understand the minds of foreigners or Japanese.

The number of Japanese who speak English has been increasing as has the number of non-Japanese who speak Japanese. The phenomenon that one cannot understand another person's mind, in spite of the fact that they can communicate well using language, will become prominent in the near future. Hiragana Times, which marks its 20th anniversary with this issue, has produced many reports from the cross-cultural frontline about the internationalization of people in Japan.

It was in the July 1991 issue that confrontation-like articles about cross-cultural issues first appeared in the magazine. One was titled "Don't be spoiled Gaijin!" and the following complaints from Japanese were published: "Speak in Japanese!” "Be on Time!" "Don't Act American!" "Be Serious in Marriage!”

To counter these complaints, arguments were brought up by non-Japanese. These included comments such as, "I better not find a Japanese trying to strike up a conversation for the express purpose of practicing his English," "Even though you say 'Be on time,' it is easy to get lost in Tokyo," "This is due to Japanese people's behavior that Japanese respect Americans so much" and "Nobody forced her to marry a foreigner."

The feature story in the July 1992 issue was "No Room for Foreigners?" This described a typical culture gap seen in Japan. Because Japanese houses are not merely an accommodation facility, but also valuable property, landlords were reluctant to lease to non-Japanese. They thought foreigners may dirty the room, may not pay the rent or cause other problems.

On the contrary, non-Japanese, many of whom regard houses in Japan as merely an accommodation facility, took it as racial discrimination and that in addition to Japanese landlords being reluctant to lease to them, they claimed that landlords asking for deposits and key money, plus having to find a Japanese guarantor, was illegal. However, the situation has since changed completely. There is now an oversupply of rooms to rent and agencies specializing in foreign clients are doing very well. Later, it was proven that the rent issue was an economic principal.

Different views of the same issue
Under these circumstances, Hiragana Times conducted multi-cultural surveys about hot issues. Among them, a question about whether "gaijin" is a discriminatory term or not drew much attention. There was a big difference in men's views. Fifty six percent of non-Japanese men as a whole replied "They feel it is discriminatory." Fourty percent of Western men considered it discriminatory, neighboring Asian men 81%, and Japanese men 37%.

Many Japanese considered the term simply a short form of the word "gaikokujin." Some non-Japanese claimed it is just like calling a Japanese a "Jap." It cannot be denied that at the time the survey was carried out in 1993 there was a tendency to look up at Westerners and look down at Asians. Since then, China has risen and a Korean boom has broken out in Japan, and Japanese views towards their Asian neighbors has changed greatly.

The most shocking result of a survey was one carried out in 1995, the 50th year after the end of World War?. The question was "Do you think that the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an inevitable act?" Eighty one percent of Japanese replied "No," while 50% of foreign readers replied "Yes." Sixty three percent of Americans alone and 81% of neighboring Asians replied "Yes."

It seems that similar awareness can be seen in neighboring countries about the never-ending issue of Yasukuni Shrine visits by Japanese politicians. In 1994, an incident in which a pistol was fired at a publishing company that had criticized the Imperial family, which has been a taboo in Japan, occurred. On this occasion Hiragana Times planned to feature taboos of the world. The title was "If you say this your life will be in danger!"

In interviews, Westerners stated that they openly criticized their governments and authority figures. But people from countries where human rights are threatened were hesitant to speak out. Even though we promised not to publish their photos and to use anonymous names, they were not cooperative. One of them said, "It would be apparent that I made the comment if my comment was published. Listen! There are only four people from my country in Japan - two people in the embassy, one is a student and one is a trader - that's me."

We have published many stories about culture shock in Japan. In the commemorative 100th issue, we featured "This is what I want to say to Japan!" from 100 people from 100 countries. Regarding Japanese people, they pointed out comments as shown below, many of which are still true even today. "They move in crowds like sheep," "Japanese don't say things clearly," and "most Japanese judge people outwardly."

Comments regarding doing business in Japan included "Japanese always have to discuss the problem among themselves before answering," "'I'll think about it' means 'No' in Japanese," "Japanese make me drink at parties." There were many other comments that Japanese cannot notice such as "Japanese are greeting all day long," "There are many people smoking cigarettes while walking in Japan," "When watching Sumo, the wrestler who won looked sad like he lost," "Why doesn't anybody sit next to me?" and "the porno industry is so successful."

People acknowledge issues differently even when they see the same thing. This appears to be due to personal feelings, but is also greatly influenced by cultural values. People see an object through different glasses (cultures). People wearing red glasses cannot see the colors of those who wear blue glasses. You must notice that other colors exist if you change glasses, but ...

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