The second story in the series is about politeness. Many of us easily point out who is polite and who is not. In many cases these judgments are based on personal experience and/or the cultural norms of the society we belong to.

Cultural norms vary depending on nations, countries, or regions. Personal experiences also vary even among people who share the same cultural norms. In other words, a person who I think is polite in manner may not look polite to you. Who would be absolutely polite anyway? Who could know? What is politeness?

Many people from foreign countries often say, “Japanese people are very polite.” However, many of us know that we rarely receive any replies from our neighbors when we greet them on the street. Does that mean Japanese people are not really polite but just trying to be nice to guests?

A leading expert on business communication, Professor Hiromasa Tanaka of Meisei University in Tokyo, talks about politeness, a key word when discussing Japanese attitudes.

Second in Series

Who Is Polite?

Tokyo, Japan

By Yas Mamemachi

Tanaka in his office(Photo by Yas Mamemachi)

s a visiting researcher, Professor Tanaka conducted further studies on business communication/interaction for seven months starting in September 2007 at the Institute for Cultural Analysis, Nottingham, or ICAN, in the UK.

In his discussion with other researchers at the institution, there were two key factors for making business interaction successful. One is power and the other politeness.

Power means you should be stronger in various factors of business interaction than your counterparts. For instance, your presentation should be more powerful than those of your counterparts. In many cases, the lender has more power than the borrower. In some cases, developing countries (recipients) with no possibility of repayment may be stronger than developed countries (donors), though.

With such power, you are able to dominate business circumstances and control your business associates, regardless of how they think or feel about your way of doing business.

However, recent studies tell us that such power may help you maintain your dominant position in business for a limited time. Instead, politeness or doing your business in a polite way or manner, may work more persuasively for a longer time than power, making your business associates accept more readily what they could hardly accept otherwise.

“The experts on politeness, Brown and Levinson (Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson), indicate that politeness should be learned as part of business skills or strategies,” say Tanaka. “Many Japanese may have a sense of this.”

According to Tanaka, Brown and Levinson divide politeness into two categories: positive politeness and negative politeness.

Positive politeness is showing a friendly attitude to your counterpart in a positive manner. It doesn’t matter whether or not you and your counterpart have a friendly relationship.

“Many American passengers in the business class section of an airline tend to chat with the persons sitting next to them. That is a case in point,” says Tanaka.

Negative politeness is keeping a distance from your counterpart, and trying not to intrude into his or her life. “On the airplane, many Japanese passengers tend to keep quiet and not talk to the persons sitting next to them, unless they are talked to by those persons. That is a case in point,” says the professor.

Some Japanese greet their neighbors when they see them in the morning. That typifies a pleasant environment in the suburbs. However, some turn their eyes away from their neighbors in the morning, and try not to intrude on their lives, maybe because they know everybody is busy in the morning. However, the situation can make you feel uncomfortable.

According to the politeness theory by Brown and Levinson, the former is simply a case of positive politeness and the latter is negative politeness. Thus, both are polite in manner.

Politeness is tricky. “Yes, it is,” says Tanaka. “In fact, politeness is a big theme discussed in business communication academic society on a global level.”

Asked who is the most polite, Tanaka answers that it is a person who can understand that the concept of politeness is diverse under almost every possible circumstance, taking into consideration social situations, personal experience, age, gender, and the time to grow up and make a judgment on someone else’s attitude.

Asked again if Japanese people are polite, the professor shrugs his shoulders, and says, “Who could know?”