Customer Reviews

The Japanese Have a Word for It: The Complete Guide to Japanese Thought and Culture

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
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He may not be Reischauer but Mr. De Mente packs enough cultural and historical background into this book to make it a worthy read for Japanese scholars or anyone with an interest in Japan. The author presents the reader with about 150 Japanese words and phrases that have special meaning for the Japanese. For example, he translates the word "kamatoto" into English as "The Dumb Blonde" i.e the Japanese propensity to feign innocence in order to gain the upper hand in a relationship or business deal. "Wa" or "harmony" is succinctly though brilliantly explained and would be something any foreign businessperson dealing with Japan should appreciate. I have read other books by Mr. De Mente but this is by far his most informative and well written. Recommended!

The Japanese have a much more complex, almost religious, relationship with their own language than speakers of European languages, and they tend to believe that no non-Japanese can learn it. (The fact that some do tends to upset them, as being out of the natural order.) There are many words and phrases in Japanese that encapsulate attitudes and built-in beliefs and the author selects 230 for investigation and explanation, relating them to attitudes and actions by Japanese-speakers and explaining how English-speakers can best deal with the situations they relate to. This includes numerous aspects of the Japanese dependence on form and formality, cultural control and conformity, group-think as opposed to individuality, group responsibility and social guaranty, reverence toward government, and other parts of the Japanese psyche that are difficult for foreigners to understand. In most cases, he also discusses the applications of a concept to business negotiations, but the possibility of the reader becoming enlightened about all things Japanese is much wider than that. This is a book you should take notes on.

I bought this book last year in preparation for coming to Japan and enjoyed it greatly. Then, on arrival, I continued reading it and found it helpful in avoiding many of the pitfalls one experiences when trying to do business in Japan. Now, 10 months on, reading it again, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It's as if the author has been following me around and written about my daily experiences here. I have many books about Japan and the Japanese Way, but none express so succinctly or directly the day-to-day experience of working in a Japanese context. You must read this book if you are working or doing business in Japan.

As a language student, I looked forward to reading this book in hopes of learning new words and phrases describing some of the unique cultural elements of Japanese society. However, I found the book at first to be somewhat confusing, then quite disappointing.

I think the title should more appropriately be "Impressions of Japanese Tatemae (social face)". The writer's style gave the distinct impression that while he may have spent a great deal of time in Japan, he never developed any particular empathy for the people or the culture. The author seems to focus far too much on the Tokugawa Shogunate period, though I don't quite see how that is particularly relevant in a book that sells itself as a guide to (presumably current) Japanese thought and culture.

Also, statements pertaining to the social customs of recent periods of Japan's history tend to be very negative (the reticence to accept foreigners into society is referred to as `built-in discrimination') or judgmental. For example, one section states that "Westerners opted for guidelines (of human conduct) based on absolute principals derived from universal concepts, with right and wrong behavior clearly spelled out... in Japan and much of the rest of Asia, however, the guidelines for human conduct were based on circumstances; on rules or laws established by those in power, and designed by them to sustain and extend their power." I find such statements to be inaccurate, condescending and to show a lack of understanding of Western history, let alone Japanese culture.

There *is* a great deal of good information in this book. Unfortunately, it is largely buried in the `Great White Expert' commentary. I highly recommend that the book be rewritten, with a focus on an actual understanding of the current principles of Japanese society and an actual attempt to understand them from the point of view of the society in which they originated. A native consultant might help.

Oh, and one minor quibble. I know full well that in 1997, there were at least two excellent established systems of romanization for Japanese available. Pick one and use it. (I prefer Hepburn myself.) The `make it up as you go along' romanization in the book is confusing at best and misleading at worst. ('' is four syllables, and not pronounced `Inn Kie'.) This may be a small thing, but it makes me wonder if the author is capable in the language at all.

I will either return it for credit or copy out the usable bits and get rid of the actual book. I wouldn't recommend it for students of either Japan's language or culture.

If you ever wondered why the Japanese are so polite, or why they escort you out the door till you are gone; then you will enjoy the explanations in this book. It has in depth explanations to every little Japanese saying, and why they believe that. After reading this I had a better understanding of there culture.
I regularly visit a Japanese home, and never understood why they did this or that. Or why they insist on doing something. Making oneself feel ackward, but after reading this book I felt relief and more comfortable around them. If you are around Japanese people, or planning to, this is a must read.

This is a great book, comparable to a mini encyclopedia. What it does is take many important aspects of Japanese culture and it compresses it into a brief and enjoyable format. Very entertaining but also very informative and you really get insight into why and how the Japanese act, feel, behave, and how it all came about. If you are wanting to learn about the culture in general, get this. It also has many good tips for when you conduct business with Japanese business owners and that their aesthetic sense overrides outlines and rational on a first meeting.

On the whole, The Japanese Have a Word For It provides an interesting, if now dated, view of Japanese culture. The author is clearly well versed in the nuances of Japanese social constructs and the insane nuances of Japanese language. It is mostly aimed at those interested in possibly doing business in Japan or with native Japanese rather than the lay person, but De Mente writes in an easy to read and follow manner. Many of his insights are quite interesting and, for anime/manga fans like myself, can add a new level of understanding to events in your favorite series. Be warned, though, that the book was written in 1997, and some of the things noted is no longer true or less common than it was when the book was written.

The biggest drawback I found with the book was its format. It is arranged as 230 "phrase-focused" chapters of 1-2 pages each, that provides a bit of info on what he considers to be "key words and expressions". With such an arrangement, the last 1/3 of the book or so became increasingly difficult to read because it became more and more repetitive. There are a small number of major points that seem to repeated in almost every chapter, and the latter chapters seem like mildly varied repeats of the previous ones. I think this book would have worked far better if it he done a different arrangement that focused on different aspects of Japan rather than the phrase-focused method.

On the whole, I'd recommend this one for anyone interested in reading more on Japanese culture, but I'd suggest reading half of it, then putting the rest aside for awhile before reading the second half to avoid the tedium.

This book demystifies the Japanese culture.

What does it mean when a Japanese person offers to 'show you their stomach'? (P120) How do they 'take the pulse of the situation'? (p268) What is 'a life without a soul?' (p148)

There's so much packed into the 394 pages to digest. Luckily each word or phrase is a short chapter. The reader can chew it over in a leasurely manner.

Essential reading.

For those interested in Japanese culture, De Mente offers the insight of Westerner who has spent most of his career in Japan. Although I have visited Japan many times, and have hired many to work with me in the US, I never could figure out why so many Japanese did not want to return to their home country. After all, I always loved the hospitality, generosity, organization, and safety of Japan without realizing that this, according to De Mente, is a placid facade for an extraordinarily rigid and regimented society where the slightest deviation is not tolerated.

The main problem with the book is that it is organized into multiple vignettes which overlap considerably, as if each was designed to stand by itself. It almost seems that these were newspaper columns that were merely assembled into book format. The most frustrating is that the vignettes are illogically organized alphabetically by their Romanization rather than by theme (except for the first section). Furthermore, it is necessary to read half way through each vignette to get at its meaning, since the subtitle is often a colloquial expression, and the first half is usually a repetition of Japanese history or customs. The other criticism is that the book is heavily slanted towards business relations such as negotiations, corporate hierarchies, and business models and this not fully applicable to other situations.

The author should have rewritten the book in chapters that illustrate a discrete point in order to increase its readability, incorporating an index to each expression with a near-literal English translation.

As a serious language learner I thought it would be about phrases that are uniquely Japanese. Instead it was a collection of trite stereotypes that have been repeated over and over and frankly don't really represent the modern country that much. Most of the rest is simple stuff that only someone who started learning about the Japanese culture a week ago would not already know.
There are a few things that most people will probably find interesting, but it's not worth spending money on. Get it at the library if you must, but only buy it if you have extra spending money you feel like wasting. I checked it out from the library myself, and it was barely worth the time I spent to read it.