ABSTRACT
A conscious use of indirection and circumlocution diminishes assertiveness and fends off possible adverse reactions by frequently resorting to silence and passivity during verbal communication. Consequently, training for individualistic assertiveness against seems to boomerang its own communicative goal and to train people for egoism and alienation rather than improved communication. Studies comparing communicational differences between Japanese and North Americans have found that a feature of the Japanese interaction style is a calculated amount of vagueness. Moreover, Johnson and Johnson report, "A child raised in a Japanese family learns that he should not call attention to himself by being loud, conceited or self-centered". Generally among Japanese, ritualized self-deprecation "is less concerned with status considerations than with emotional relationships between peers". Consequently, no mutual contraction is expected in conflicting relationships, and people are forced to actualize themselves by asserting and praising themselves all by themselves.
