What does 'face' mean to the Japanese? Understanding the import of 'face' in Japanese business interactions

Abstract

In the first section of this chapter, the history of the usage of the term face in both academic and popular discourse about Japanese is briefly discussed in order to illustrate how a significant gap has developed between folk or emic conceptualisations of face, and theoretical or etic notions. This is followed by an overview of previous research into the emic notions of face in (Modern Standard) Japanese that are the focus of this chapter. From this overview it emerges that there appears to be some confusion in the literature as to the conceptualisation of the various emic terms for face in Japanese, and there remains scope for a more comprehensive discussion of the various collocations of those terms. The various terms for face in (Modern Standard) Japanese, including kao, menboku, taimen and mentsu are thus discussed in more detail in order to clarify their conceptualisations. The various collocations of those emic terms for face are then reviewed, with more detailed discussion of those expressions that have particular significance for business interactions. In the final section, the implications of this understanding of Japanese face for the question of what face means to the Japanese, and its import for business interactions are considered.