ABSTRACT
DID YOU KNOW that public kissing is frowned upon in Japan? We are not talking about the Land of the Rising Sun centuries ago but rather modern Japan. While in many countries laws prohibit “indecent behavior” in public and religious standards prescribe modesty between men and women, in Japan neither apply. Japan has no law or religious edict against kissing one’s spouse or loved ones in public. People simply follow a tradition, an old and informal rule of conduct, of keeping these matters private. While kissing is rare in Japan, on a visit to New York or Moscow, you will inevitably see people hugging or kissing good-bye at a train station or airport. So what is so unacceptable about public kissing to the Japanese? People from Japan will tell you, from the beginning of their lives, they learn to restrain their emotions in public. It is considered a sign of personal weakness for an individual to display anxiety, love, joy, sadness, and other emotions in the presence of others. e question arises, in countries such as Japan where the expression of feelings is so restricted by cultural rules, do the Japanese-and other peoples from cultures like theirs-experience emotions in the same way that people from more permissive cultures do?
