Different Games, Different Rules: Why Americans and Japanese Misunderstand Each Other (review)

In her preface, Haru Yamada declares that Americans and Japanese have trouble understanding one another because they are socialized into different speech communities, in effect, learning different rules for the ‘game’ of linguistic communication. The metaphor of games is carried throughout the book, with discussions of equipment, ways of scoring, and different styles of coaching.

Ch. 1 (3–21) describes an American cultural ideal Y calls ‘equal opportunity independence’ in which ‘Every individual gets a fair chance [to speak],but everyone must honor others as individuals who operate under the same principle’ (9). Japanese, by contrast, follow an ideal of amae (literally ‘sweetness’, glossed ‘sweet interdependence’). Communicatively, this interdependence is realized through what Y calls other-centered, distanced talk.

Ch. 2 (23–35),‘Communication equipment’, discusses linguistic differences between Japanese and American English, including honorifics, personal pronouns, verb tenses, case particles, and negation. Curiously, here and throughout the book, Y includes very little actual Japanese. Instead, she presents idiomatic translations of Japanese conversations, with occasional literal translations to highlight grammatical differences. The use of translation makes the book very accessible and is fitting for an audience of American business people. For the linguist, however, it is strange to read an analysis without actual language data. Ch. 3 (37–51) expands the linguistic analysis, treating greetings and set phrases, as well as conventions for using personal names.

Chs. 4–8 (53–119) discuss Japanese and American business practices. Y argues against the idea that there is a universal ‘business culture’. Business cultures are subparts of the larger cultures within which they occur, influenced by the same linguistic and cultural norms discussed throughout the book. These chapters give examples of complementary schismogenesis encountered when people meet without being aware of their interlocutors’—or their own—expectations about language and culture.

Ch. 9 (121–37) discusses different cultural role models. In America, status is typically earned through work for pay, thus favoring the working man. In Japan, Y argues, the value on amae favors the nurturing mother, who is the model of this interdependent relationship. Y claims that feminists who see Japanese women as oppressed are misinformed, since they ignore the different values Japan and the US place on work for pay versus motherhood. I must disagree, though, with the implication that Japanese people do not suffer due to gender inequality.

Ch. 10 (139–48),‘You are what you speak’, closes the book with a discussion of language and identity. Y points out that language is an important factor both in the creation stories and in the national identities of the US and Japan. Learning American English is an important part of what allows one to become American. Speaking Japanese allows one to remain Japanese, despite encroaching gaijin (foreigners).

This book is eminently readable and should be especially of interest to American business people. It is less useful to the linguist with a special interest in Japanese or in interethnic communication, but may serve as an interesting introduction to such issues.