The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture

by Osamu Ikeno

Book Overview

In The Japanese Mind, Roger Davies offers Westerners an insightful guide to understanding the unique aspects of Japanese culture.

Readers of this book will develop a comprehensive grasp of Japanese society and the core values that remain at its foundation.

Among the topics explored are: aimai (ambiguity), amae (dependence upon others' benevolence), and amakudari (the nation's descent from heaven)chinmoku...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804832951
• ISBN13: 9780804832953
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Very interesting, I wish they had more books like this for other cultures

The Japanese Mind is a group of short essays on different Japanese values. It introduces the reader to the meaning of being Japanese. I wish they had more books like this one about other nations and cultures. Without having to trouble, you feel you understand how the Japanese live their lives. In a sense you get in their shoes and see the world through their eyes.

Well-written, literate, useful...

My wife and I found this book very helpful, prior to our first trip to Japan. We have been somewhat fearful of this trip, because of langugage and obvious cultural differences. Nevertheless, this book added to our understanding of current cultural traits, ideas, and ideals in Japan; their historical origins; their meaning to both Japanese and first-visit foreigners; and the countervailing Western forces eroding at the "pure strain" traits or ideals. All in all, this book is a fascinating synopsis of Japanese thinking about unique Japanese traits. We also liked the fact that at the end of each brief chapter, the editors have written a number of thought-provoking questions. These questions ask the reader to expand one's thinking and make clear cross-cultural distinctions. Besides making the book even more useful to persons like us, these questions also make this book a sure winner in any advanced high school or college class on Japan.

Exploring tolerance and understanding

I stumbled upon this thoroughly enlightening book at the end of my third year of living in a small bucolic town in the mountains of rural Japan. While it is intended as an overview and introduction to various things that can make the Japanese seem different and enigmatic to outsiders, many of the topics are discussed from their historical evolution, which helps to construct them in a much fuller and as a more complete figure. Moreover, the subjects covered are often unobservable to the casual visitor and neophytic foreign transplant, yet are central to understanding the Japanese character. Where I had just simply witnessed and pondered over many baffling and seemingly contradictory actions of the people whom I was residing amongst at first, after reading this book I came to understand them in a much clearer and tolerant way. Another result, incidentally, was it also helped ease me through an extremely delayed case of culture shock. We should note that problems arise not through stereotyping (which, despite our fanatical political correctness at times does tend to be accurate more often than not), but when we use these generalizations to assert a cultural superiority, or inferiority as the case may be, and to define differences as being anything other than such.This wonderful little book is clearly written by Japanese college students, and edited by the professors who guided them, in a style that makes even opaque concepts accessible. Ritualistic behavior is deconstructed in plain and precise language, in a conciseness that is also equally typical of the Japanese. It is organized into twenty-eight mostly interconnected chapters, though you can read them in any order you prefer. Some are perhaps too brief and would require explorations elsewhere for those serious inquisitors, still, like pieces to a puzzle, if you accurately connect them, they do render a thorough image in their totality. The editors, however, are careful to remind us that many of these topics continue to be debated and controversial even within Japanese society today. Nevertheless, the keen observer should, for example, be able to meld chapters like Uchi to Soto (literally translated as inside and outside), Honne to Tatemae (actual intentions and superficial words/actions, in a chapter I wished was more developed), Haragei (the implicit way of communication), Aimai (ambiguity), and Nemawashi (laying the groundwork) to better understand the Japanese "ways" in intercultural dealings and discern why they have often been regarded as remaining isolated inside their own country and outside of the responsibilities in world affairs that many would like to attribute to one of the world's strongest economic powers.This book is filled with informative and insightful essays and should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in the Japanese mentality, for those who study the language, and for even those Japanese who have a good enough command of English and wish to understand and co

Highly enlightening...

First of all let me correct one somewhat negative reviewer who states that `The Japanese Mind' is `how one British professor interpreted Japanese culture'. This comment I assume refers to Roger J. Davies who I believe is indeed British by birth (more precisely Welsh) but was actually brought up and educated in Canada and has only recently continued his studies back in Wales. He is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Ehime University in Matsuyama, Japan, and also Academic Director of that University's English Education Centre. This book is also edited by Osamu Ikeno, who is Associate Professor of English Education in the Faculty of Education at Ehime University. So this is far from just one British Professor's interpretation. This is a book of some authority. Also, if another reviewer's assertion that the book has a `lack of depth in the analysis, frequent non-sequiturs' (and who even goes so far as to recommend that you `use at your peril') is a truly fair assessment of the standard of work produced by Roger Davies and Osamu Ikeno, then I doubt if those two gentlemen would occupy the prestigious positions they do.As a European and `general reader' I found the book gave a fascinating insight into what can at first appear to the layman to be a baffling and unfathomable culture, given extra credence by the fact that, as the introduction states, the information presented is from the perspective of the Japanese people themselves. The format allows for casual study as the chapters can be read in any order you wish. I would consider this an invaluable guide for anyone visiting Japan and/or who wishes to better understand the complexities of Japanese customs and behaviour. No book could possibly explain all the intricate facets of Japanese society, and certainly not to everyone's satisfaction, but `The Japanese Mind' goes a long way toward doing so.

The perfect companion for students of Japanese

I happened on to this book at the public library and picked it up because, it was the the most recently published book they had to choose from. I have been stdying Japanese for 3yrs and have visited Japan three times. Japan is a complex country with an even more complex culture. This book offers some general insight and context for understanding Japan and its culture. It is especially helpful for understanding the basics of communicating Japanese people. The chapters on tatemae, giri, amae and chinmoku are the most helpful. It is set up like a discussion book with breif class exercises at the end of each chapter, but it is the perfect companion for anyone who studies the language or regularly interacts with Japanese people.