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Review focus: communication, loquacity, distrust, dislike, cultural attainment, morality, verbal restraint, etiquette, verbosity
Asian Business Code Words Index NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company Asian Business Strategy & Street Intelligence Ezine
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The Japanese have traditionally been wary of people who were good talkers, equating the habit and demonstrations of such ability with unprincipled, untrustworthy behavior. While this attitude toward loquacity is also common in the West, in Japan the negative response to people who talk a great deal has been much more deeply ingrained in the culture and far more important in the overall scheme of things - particularly in the past. The distrust and dislike of verbosity in Japan had its origin in Buddhism and Confucianism, both of which called for a quiet, contemplative demeanor and held that actions spoke much louder than words. Historically in Japan, self-restraint in expression was equated with cultural attainment, morality, and wisdom, and a great deal of all communication was therefore silent - a function of cultural intuition rather than words. Another key factor contributing to the importance of verbal restraint was the nature of Japanese etiquette itself. In formal situations, saying exactly the right thing, at the right time, and in the right way, was an absolute requirement. In encounters with superiors, the authorities, and government and court officials, including samurai warriors, speech standards were especially strict, and the consequence of not adhering to them precisely could literally be fatal. Because of this obsessive concern with a precise protocol in verbal communication, it became characteristic of the Japanese to say as little as possible in order to avoid ageashi tori (ah-gay-ah-she toe-ree), or being "tripped up by their own tongue". Occasions when "slips of the tongue," ageashi wo toru (ah-gay-ah-she oh toe-ree), could have serious, even fatal, consequences were so common in Japanese life that avoiding them was a never-ending challenge. Thus, verbosity in itself was dangerous, because the more a person talked the more likely it was that he or she might make some kind of error in the choice of vocabulary, use the wrong tone of voice, or try the patience of the listener - all of which could trigger a negative reaction from the other party. In present-day Japan, verbosity is still a serious breach of etiquette, and with some exceptions people still react negatively to big talkers - including politicians. People who are permitted a certain talkativeness include entertainers - particularly comedians whose stock-in-trade is their wit and facile tongue - newscasters, professional commentators, educators, and increasingly since the early 1990s, a few of the country's leading businessmen who have achieved the status of sensei (sen-say-e), "teacher" or "master," and are no longer looked upon only as businessmen. The Japanese, however, are a long way from accepting and being comfortable with the fast-talking, free-for-all kind of verbal behavior that is common among Americans and other Westerners, and as a consequence, an appreciation of talkative behavior is one of the handicaps that adversely affects the ability of Westerners to communicate effectively in Japan. It is an ironic cultural twist that while the Japanese prefer verbal restraint and periods of silence, Americans regard reticence to talk as a weakness, and periods of silence as a vacuum that must be filled up. Japanese negotiators almost always take it for granted that Westerners will commit any number of "slips of the tongue" during the course of meetings because of their propensity to talk, and the Japanese encourage this by keeping quiet most of the time. The Japanese custom of reticence in speech thus contributes to the American habit of talking too much - of literally engaging in sekkyo (sake-k'yoe), or "preaching", at every opportunity. This factor becomes even more significant when it is combined with the Japanese custom of deliberately interspersing time gaps into their negotiating sessions that are especially stressful - periods of one, two, or more minutes when they simply stop listening and take impromptu breaks. There is nothing malicious about these breaks. Formal encounters in Japan have always demanded extraordinary attention and concentration and were therefore stressful. It became customary to insert such breaks into formal situations so the participants could relax for a short while. But all too often when the Japanese side tunes out, inexperienced American negotiators presume that they are not getting through to the Japanese; the Americans then panic and redouble their verbal efforts to break down what they perceive as a barrier. Generally speaking, the foreign side in negotiating sessions cannot speed up the flow of the meetings by changing the built-in behavior of their Japanese counterparts, so the only rational course is to adapt to the situation at hand.
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Boye Lafayette de Mente is one of our regular monthly columnists at the 
| This month's column is excerpted from Dictionary of Japan's Business Code Words, by Boye Lafayette De Mente available from NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company |
© Boye Lafayette De Mente & the Asia Pacific Management Forum 1999
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