Japanese Reticence in Cross-Cultural Situations : Can It Be Communicative?

In recent years scholars have shown that silence is not just a gap between speeches but a communicative act through which a variety of messages are conveyed. It is also known that the attitudes toward silence vary from culture to culture. Japanese culture, for example, is considered to have a comparatively high tolerance of silence, which is indicative of their deep-rooted culture-specific values. The aim of this paper is to review Japanese silent behavior by examinig some case studies, and to consider the sociocultural rules that seem to affect their behavior. It is also intended to stress the importance of applying this knowledge of behavioral differences when teaching English to Japanese students. This, in turn, will help the students avoid possible silence-related cross-cultural communication breakdown in years to come