Japanese Politeness: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|How courteous is the Japanese:
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"So sorry, this my garden now."|Ogden Nash}}
Japan has a very distinct culture compared to its neighbors, and one aspect noted by many visitors to
The general principles of politeness in Japanese culture involve [[Hint Dropping|avoiding explicit disagreement or refusal]] at all costs, [[My Country, Right or Wrong|never criticizing one's own in-group]] (whether that's your family, your company, your school club or whatever) in front of outsiders, being [[Extreme Doormat|extraordinarily deferential]] toward others in general and authority figures in particular, and indirectly praising others while [[Think Nothing of It|downplaying one's own accomplishments]]. These are all taken to such extremes that it's necessary to learn a [[Keigo|drastically different vocabulary and even set of grammar rules]] for expressing degrees of politeness in the Japanese language.
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The rules can interact in ways that are hard for foreigners to predict: for example, one consequence is that it is entirely polite to diss even your superiors when talking to an outsider, but ''not'' if they are present. That's because in this situation both you and your opposite are not your own people, but the representatives of your respective groups first and foremost, and the humility clause kicks in. If anyone else from either group is present, on the other hand, dissing them becomes a sign of the intra-group tensions, [[My Country, Right or Wrong|which is a big no-no]].
The Japanese side of this (as in, everyone else is
{{examples}}
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'''Child!Japan:''' ''(bows)'' Hello China, whom the sun sets upon. I am Japan...
'''China:''' Wah! This kid is so ''rude'', aru! }}
** [[Truth in Television]], this is practically how Japan addressed itself at their first diplomatic document to China (''The Emperor of the Land of the Sunrise to the Emperor of the Land of the Sunset...''). The Chinese
* On ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', Asuka, who was raised in Germany and is only [[But Not Too Foreign|a quarter Japanese]], complains about Shinji and Rei being so polite.
* In ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'', the fact that Tamaki was raised in France and still doesn't fully understand Japanese Politeness explains a lot about his
* In ''[[Welcome to The NHK]]'' a group of people who just barely avoided committing group suicide get a stern lecture from the local
* The manga ''[[Hana Kimi]]'' has the main character, who was raised in America, attempt to make friends at her new school in Japan by marching up to people and literally shouting "HI I LIKE YOU LET'S BE FRIENDS!"
* ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei]]'' parodies this with Kaere Kimura, a Japanese-born transfer student who spent much of her childhood in the West before returning to Japan, and has a [[Split Personality]] as a result. In Westerner mode, she's a brash, loudmouthed, selfish and arrogant [[Jerkass]]. In Japanese mode, she becomes an [[Extreme Doormat]] who's constantly contemplating suicide ''in order to avoid becoming a bother to anyone''.
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== Films -- Live-Action ==
* Played seriously in ''[[The Last Samurai]]'', where Nathan does appreciates the incredible levels of politeness of the Japanese
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== Western Animation ==
* Many WWII era cartoons featured the Japanese saying "Ah, so [[Japanese Ranguage|solly]]!" [[Apologetic Attacker|as they fired on Allied forces.]]
* In one episode of ''[[King of the Hill]]'', Hank visits Japan and it turns out that he has a Japanese half-brother. The two had to race to stop their father Cotton from spitting on the Emperor at an apology ceremony. Hank is impatient with the slow, measured pace of interpersonal interactions, while his brother criticizes Hank's rash, cowboy attitude. By the end of the episode, both of them see the value in each other's approaches. First, the importance of
* Mocked, like everything else, on ''[[The Simpsons]]''. A [[Yakuza]] man is chucked through their front window because of a [[Mob War]] on the lawn, and he bows politely and asks forgiveness before rushing out the door and rejoining the fight.
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* During the time of [[Imperial Japan]], and before, when assassinations were a more common way of resolving disputes, political and otherwise, the assassin would go to the victim's home and kill him. Then, he would apologize to the servants (and the family, if they weren't targets as well) for messing up the house.
* Japanese audiences at concert venues and sporting events tend to be very quiet, which can be quite eerie to westerners. In concerts, audiences usually sit quietly until the song ends, then erupt in applause afterwards. Many [[Mixed Martial Arts]] commentators at Japanese venues will remark that you could hear a pin drop in an auditorium holding 100,000 spectators.
* Japanese railways routinely charge the clean-up work after suicides to the families of the
* It's not unheard of for the [[Yakuza]] to call a press conference and make a public apology when their
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