THE CENTRALITY OF NINGENSEI TO JAPANESE NEGOTIATING AND INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS - IMPLICATIONS FOR UNITED-STATES-JAPANESE COMMUNICATION

In response to the ''increasing dissatisfaction with the use of North American modes of communication to explain communication processes in Asia'' this paper examines the indigenous concept of ningensei or ''human beingness'' as central to Japanese negotiating. Positioning ningensei within a philosophic context of Confucianism, clusters and axes of Japanese behavioral tendencies are cited, juxtaposed to U.S. negotiating style. Ningensei is developed as a matrix for systemically investigating relationships between a deeply rooted Japanese national cultural system, with symbols, premises, rules, forms, and restricted codes pivotal to the negotiating process. The argument is advanced that an insider's knowledge of Japanese-Japanese (intracultural) negotiating is a prerequisite for developing Western intercultural theory, predeparture training, and facing Japanese in interpersonal contact situations.