The Japanese Welcome Nonwelcome Ambivalence Syndrome toward MarebitolIjinl Gaijin Strangers: Its Implications for Intercultural Communication Research
The recent rapid expansion of worldwide communication and transportation networks has made it both possible and inevitable for the Japanese to encounter strangers from different racial, ethnic, and sociocultural back grounds not only overseas but also in Japan. Simply encountering them without appropriate preparation, however, does not guarantee expected intercultural understanding; it often causes mutual fear, misunderstanding, and suspicion within people placed in such intercultural communication sit uations. The study of intercultural communication, which describes and explains such daily occurrences and possibly solves problems related to them, has been, through most of its academic history, a predominantly U.S. cen tered enterprise in Japan. These days, therefore, Japanese scholars in the field are growingly expected to contribute non Western thoughts and frames of reference from their Japanese sociocultural background. In this scholarly context, the present study attempts to analyze the conventional sociofolkloric marebitol ijinl gaijin ambivalent predispositions and attitudes toward strangers from different racial, ethnic, and sociocultural backgrounds. It will con tribute from non Euro American perspectives to the revision or improve ment of Western intercultural communication theories and research methods by analyzing the long standing Japanese welcome nonwelcome and inclu sion exclusion ambivalence frequently manifested in their encounters with strange people whose racial, ethnic, and sociocultural backgrounds are differ ent from the average Japanese.