Non-verbal Communication & Implications for Research

Japan is a ‘high context’ culture meaning they rely more on non-verbal cues for communication than they do on verbal cues. A lot of cultural traits in Japan tend to connect with the idea of creating social harmony or 和 WA (harmony) so communication is generally non-direct / non-confrontational and can often be ambiguous and vague. This has a lot of implications for conducting research in Japan so here are some key points to remember when observing / interviewing Japanese respondents either in a focus group setting or in their homes.

Displaying negative emotions is not encouraged as it is considered a burden (meiwaku) to others. And when they are displayed it is usually in very subtle ways like the furrow of the eye-brows, breathing through clenched teeth, or more heavily through the nose – even silence may indicate a disliking for something because they want to avoid using negative or confrontational language. Even smiles can have multiple meanings including a sign of happiness, a sign of agreement, or a smile may even be used to cover up negative emotions or a point of disagreement.

It would be uncommon to see hand waving or raised voices here unless someone was really about to explode. In research interviews, for example, respondents are more reluctant to make negative comments about a product than a westerner who tend to be more direct about their feelings. So even though respondents may be nodding their heads and saying yes they would be interested in purchasing, they may be merely trying to avoid telling you they have little interest to avoid appearing negative. Of course this is the moderator’s role to make sure we get the real answers and there are other tricks like individual rating charts, but it is always good to keep your eye out for those non-verbal cues.

Silence as part of a conversation is, however, quite common as holding back to let others speak is considered key to maintaining the 和 WA and is also a sign of patience, consideration, and respect.

Digressing slightly, but on the topic of respect – we generally don’t recommend asking the age of respondents during the introductions of larger focus groups – once everyone knows each other’s age, in their minds they also form the hierarchy of the group and who should defer to who’s opinion. So if it can be avoided please don’t include the age question in the introduction in focus groups.

Following on from this whole idea of non-confrontational communication Japanese are always looking to find group consensus. So we like to have respondents individually write down some of their reactions to concepts, packages etc before they report back to the group. That way we are able to obtain truer responses rather than responses seeking to reach a group consensus.

For westerners the cultural trait of non-verbal communication, ambiguity and vagueness can be quite hard to comprehend and sometimes defies logic at times. It is not uncommon for westerners to throw up their hands and be heard to say ‘why didn’t you just tell me that in the first place!’  But it is all connected to this idea of maintaining the 和 WA and if you always keep that in the back of your mind when trying to figure things out here you’ll probably come up with some better reasoning for particular behaviors.