JAPANESE AND NON-JAPANESE PERCEPTIONS OF JAPANESE COMMUNICATION

Perceptions of the communicative style of different languages can influence the way in which non-native speakers and native speakers of a particular language interact. For example, second-language learners of Japanese often believe that using a lot of honorifics (keigo) to introduce themselves to other students at universities in Japan is more polite. However, since Japanese students themselves tend to use only a limited degree of honorifics in this kind of situation, foreign students can end up conveying an impression of overpoliteness or even aloofness (Ohashi et al 1992). The first step in dealing with these kinds of issues in Japanese language education is to determine what kinds of perceptions are held by Japanese and non-Japanese in regards to Japanese communication. 2 The past 20 years has seen a phenomenal growth in both the number of non-Japanese studying Japanese throughout the world, and in the number of non-Japanese living in Japan. The number of students studying Japanese outside Japan has increased 9.5 times from 127,167 in 1979 to 2,102, 103 in 1998 (Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute 1998), while the number of non-Japanese residents has doubled from 774,505 in 1979 to 1,556,113 in 1999 (Immigration Bureau, Ministry of Justice, July 2000). 3 The subsequent increase in the number of non-Japanese who can speak Japanese has gone some way to changing the perception that Japanese is too difficult for foreigners to master (Haugh 1998), but the effect of the internationalisation of Japanese on perceptions of Japanese communication has received little attention to date.