Evidence used to support Nihonjinron theories
Linguistic evidence is used to prove attributes of the Japanese people like situational ethics, non-eloquence, non-logicality, etc. Evidence from pulp fiction or trash fiction, as opposed to high literature, is more compelling because it is read by the "average" Japanese person. There are several Japanese expressions or turns of phrase that support the contention that Japanese are taciturn. "Speak the heart via the heart." (Non verbal communication between master and student.) "Without any clues given, he got the hint and left" (Tact.) One indication of taciturnity would be the amount of silence used in verbal communication. You'd assume that the more silence there is (between conversations and between people in the same conversation) suggests more taciturnity. It turns out that there isn't much silence in Japanese spoken communications. As a matter of fact, overlapping with the previous speaker (i.e. start talking before they finished talking) is seen to be less rude than in American English, for example. Of course, this tendency is seen to be evidence FOR group orientation and FOR a special sort of empathy that the Japanese have for one another. On the other hand, there are many non-verbal modes or tactics of argumentation. For example, it is acceptable to respond to an argument with silence and to turn the eyes away. This indicates that you disagree. This, of course, speaks to the non-verbal connection between Japanese. Here there is contradictory evidence. Taciturnity is evidenced by the fact that it is good to be "a man of action" (and "not of words" is implied) but groupism is evidenced by the fact that it is bad to be "a man of few words" (suggesting unsociability). Are these contradictions dealt with by Nihonjinron theorists? Tatemae vs. Honne. Omote vs. Ura. Soto vs. Uchi. Ki means spirit. 'ga', when used with 'ki', is an intransitive marker that suggests that the speaker didn't have control of their 'ki'. That it (whatever the object is) just happened. 'o' when used with ki suggests that the speaker had control and this combination always means something bad. Thus, Japan is a country of 'to become' while the west is a 'country' of 'to do'. Whorfian theory . Language shapes reality. Thus, for example, if the Japanese language is hierarchical then the Japanese people are hierarchical. Perhaps the empathy seen (and explained by Japaneseness in Nihonjinron) is really just a matter of adverbs. In other words, Japanese speakers act 'as-if' they were empathetic when really the language structure allows them to anticipate what other speakers will say before they finish saying it. For example, let's say its clear from context that we're talking about my grandmother (who we both know is old and bed ridden). In Japanese, I'd say something like "I tomorrow pillow for grandmother get." While in English that would be something like "I'm going to get a pillow for my grandmother tomorrow". In the latter case, you'd have to wait to the end of the sentence to know what I'm talking about doing and when. In the Japanese case, you'd know what I was doing, essentially, after the word pillow. Cultural scripts .