Necessary Social Skills for International Students in Japan

As a part of researches on social skills training aimed at facilitating the cross-cultural adjustment of sojourners in Japan, this study asked Japanese experts in interpersonal behavior research about how international students should cope with ten aspects of social difficulty in interpersonal situations. The mailed questionnaire administered to 133 social psychologists. Twenty three subjects responded to the open-ended items. Their responses were categorized through the KJ method of content analysis. The following main categories were obtained; A) interpersonal relations (relationship with stranger, friendship formation, behavior toward a superior, overcoming language handicap, managing social exchange, behavior toward opposite sex members), B) social situations (public etiquette, dealing with collective behavior), C) indirectness (negating, indirect expression). Coping strategies suggested by the respondents were categorized into three areas of a) behavior, b) cognition, c) passiveness, and under these categories were identified their respective component structure. The results offer fundamental resources for formulating structured learning, cognitive restructuring and goal setting regarding social skills training