Negotiating multiple identities: Shame and pride among Japanese returnees

201 Pages·2014·3.261 MB·English

by  Kiyoko Sueda (auth.)

Kiyoko Sueda
Negotiating
multiple
identities
Shame and pride among Japanese
returnees
Negotiating multiple identities

Kiyoko Sueda
Negotiating multiple
identities
Shame and pride among Japanese returnees
123
KiyokoSueda
AoyamaGakuinUniversity
Tokyo
Japan
ISBN978-981-287-007-0 ISBN978-981-287-008-7(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-981-287-008-7
SpringerSingaporeHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
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To myfamily,myfriends,andmymentors
who supportedmeon sunnydays and
rainydays andin memoryofmyfather,
KeijiroNakajima,who lived anordinarylife
inan extraordinaryway.

Foreword
KiyokoSueda,Professorof communicationstudiesatAoyamaGakuinUniversity
in Tokyo,Japan, is a leadingfigurein the field of interculturalcommunication.In
thisbook,she usesherresearchwithJapanese‘returnees’(peoplewhohavespent
substantialperiodsoftimeoutsideJapanandthenreturned)toilluminateimportant
issues of personal and social identity. Returnees are often seen in Japan as both
privileged,inparticularbecauseoftheirabilityintheEnglishlanguage,avaluable
resourceinaglobalisingworld,andinsomewaysdisadvantaged,becausetheirtime
abroadmeansthattheymayhaveproblemsofadjustmenttoJapanesesocietywhen
they return.A key theme for Prof. Sueda is how far returneesidentify themselves
assuchandtheimplicationsthishasfortheirsenseofthemselves.Inexploringthis
theme, the book draws upon both ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ scholarship to enhance
ourunderstandingoftheimpactattheindividuallevelofprocessesofglobalisation
andshiftinginternationalrelations.
AparticularstrengthandinterestofthebookisProf.Sueda’sfocusonemotions
andtheirimportanceinthemanagementof‘face’andthemaintenanceofidentity.
As she explains, ‘face’ is a concept whose origins lie in China, but in a different
context and tradition, it is also central to the work of Erving Goffman on the
presentationofselfininterpersonalrelations.ProfessorSuedacreativelycombines
Eastern and Western approaches in a powerful analysis of how returnees manage
theiremotionsinsituationsofpotentiallythreatenedidentity.Sheshowshow‘face’
is an indicatorof one’semotionalstate within a particular identity and how when
faceisthreatenedtheresultcanbetheexperienceofshame.Thedegreetowhichone
issecureandathomewithinaparticularidentitydependsonhowonemanagesthat
shame;psychologicalwell-beingdependsontheindividual’sbeingabletorecover
asenseofpridewithinthatidentity.InthisanalysisProf.Suedamakescreativeuse
ofthe work ofThomasJ. Scheffonthe centralityin sociallife of the emotionsof
shame andpride.Her researchprovidesconvincingsupportforScheff’sargument
that participants in a relationship need to acknowledge shame in order to create
space for the restoration of pride and thus to avoid the escalation of hostility and
potentiallydestructiveconflict(Scheff,1994,1997).
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Methodologically, Prof. Sueda’s work is a good example of what Scheff calls
‘part/whole analysis’, in that she moves from detailed analysis of individuals’
understandingsoftheiridentityindifferentsocialsituationstoabroaderdiscussion
of Japanese people’s response to globalisation and its implications for policies
in education and the development of intercultural understanding. In this way she
achievessomethingarguablyrareinthesocialsciences,inthatsheshowsthesocial
and psychological mechanisms that link individual experience to much broader
processesofsocialchange.
KiyokoSueda’sbookisatimelycontributiontounderstandingoftheimpactof
globalisation and internationalisation on Japanese society and of the implications
of recent economic and cultural developments in China. Her work is potentially
important for the study of intercultural communication in a world in which the
meaningofnationalboundariesischangingandideaslongtakenforgrantedabout
nationandidentityarebecomingproblematic.Itsimportancehasbeenrecognised
inJapan,anditisgoodtoseeitbeingmadeaccessibletoawideraudience.
Lancaster,UK DavidSmith
January,2014
References
Scheff, T. J. (1994). Bloody revenge: Emotions, nationalism and war. Boulder, CO: Westview
Press.
Scheff,T.J.(1997).Emotions,thesocialbondandhumanreality:Part/wholeanalysis.Cambridge,
UK:CambridgeUniversityPress.
Preface
This book is partially based on my Ph.D. thesis Shame and pride behind face:
Japanese returnees’ negotiation of multiple identities submitted to the University
of Lancaster in 2002 and on my follow-up research conducted 10 years after the
initialresearch.
MyseriesofresearchprojectsbeganwhenIworkedonmymaster’sdissertation,
Across-culturalstudyofembarrassment:TheU.S.cultureandtheJapaneseculture,
submittedtotheDepartmentofSpeechCommunication,CaliforniaStateUniversity,
Fullerton, in 1990. The dissertation was a contrastive and comparative study on
the strategiesto cope with an embarrassingsituationin US andJapanese business
organisations.At that time, I reencounteredthe concept of face. The reason I put
here ‘reencountered’ was because my first degree in a Japanese university and
my first master’s degree were both in sociology and the study of Goffman was
somethingIhadtogothroughatbothstages.Inthedissertation,Ilookedatcultural
patterns such as individualism versus collectivism, or high-context versus low-
contest communication styles, and compared the communicative strategies in an
embarrassingsituationbetweentheUSAmericansandtheJapanese.
However,on returningto Japan, I faced somethingthat could not be explained
bytheframeworkof‘Western’cultureand‘Eastern’culture.ThathappenedwhenI
startedtoteachChinesestudentsatauniversityinTokyo.Then,Iwasshockedbythe
diversitywithinAsiaorEastAsia.IwassurprisedwhenInoticednotallbutmany
Chinese students hardly apologised and would make excuses for not having done
whatevertheyweresupposedtodo.Throughaseriesofinterviews,Ifoundthattheir
communicationstyles exhibitedtheir sense of face and thatChinese and Japanese
are different in the perception and experience of face. Then, I collaborated with
researchersfromotherAsiancountriessuchasTaiwanandThailandandconducted
aseriesofresearchprojectstoexploresimilaritiesanddifferencesintheperception
of face in Asian contexts. I, at that time, was opposed to putting various Asian
countriesorculturesintoonebracket,‘Asia’.Icontinuedthislineofresearchwhen
IhadachancetoteachatauniversityinSapporo.
Then, after I completed collaborative work with researchers from other Asian
countries, I started to wonder which direction I should take. It is meaningful to
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