Variation in Attitudes and Values Among Japanese Americans and Japanese Brazilians Across Generations

Interpersonal Style and Japanese American Organizational Involvement

“…the pressures of adapting to American culture. Consistent with this, Yamaoka (2000) found that with respect to the core Japanese orientation of giri ninjo, a ninjo perspective is currently more characteristic of Japanese Americans…”

“…Previous studies by the research group at the Institute for Statistical Mathe matics, however, have shown that certain important perspectives of the Japanese people, notably the giri-ninjo attitude, have been transmitted to Japanese Amer icans (Yamaoka, 2000). Giri refers to an obligation that a person feels strongly must be repaid and ninjo to a sympathetic (taking account of the other's feelings) interpersonal orientation.…”

“…However, Yamaoka (2000) in her recent study of the giri ninjo attitude among Japanese Americans, showed that when the giri and ninjo components are analyzed separately, ninjo by itself is a stronger attitude among Japanese Americans than is giri-ninjo, the combined variable. Yamaoka's results may be interpreted in this way, that giri is an institutional attitude of obligations embedded within the Japanese social system, whereas ninjo is an interpersonal attitude of a kind which the Japanese most likely acquire in infancy.…”

A Time to Trust

“…The third generation and younger generations seem to have become more adaptive to the country where they were born and live now. These observations have been already explained by Hayashi (1993), Yamaoka (2000, Figure 4 & Table 3), and Yoshino (2000, p. 197: 2001b. Here I will show an analysis on the sense of trust among the Japanese migrants in Brazil.…”

“…Among others, the stability of interpersonal attitudes and reli gious attitudes may distinguish the Japanese from other countries. That is, the Japanese show a higher score on the "Giri-Ninjyo scale" than the other countries; although only one third of the Japanese have religious faith, more than 60% of the Japanese support the opinion that religious attitudes are important, as shown in Yoshino & Hayashi (in this volume) and Yamaoka (2000).…”