First, I started analysing "emotion words" in Japanese. You can have a look here. I've concluded that they were much less numerous than in English, and even basic verbs describing the way of looking, walking or laughing didn't convey nuances in feelings in Japanesecheck here. In English, "stare", "gape" and "gaze" all mean look fixedly ("jitto miru"), but "stare" is unpleasant or embrassing for the person who is stared at, while "gaze" express admiration and "gape" has the feeling of suprise or wonder (so that the mouth is wide open).

I am not going to make a list of all words, but my impression of Japanese, after living 2 years in Japan, hearing and speaking it everyday, is that words are more repetitive than in English, not only because they are less numerous, but because Japanese tend not to use lots of formal kanji compound (more literary or old fashioned).

As I was watching Japanese TV programmes and anime, it dawned on me that Japanese expressed their feelings with gestures, strong facial expressions and emotional tone of voice, to compensate the absence of adequate words. So, when an English speaker says "remarkable, fantastic, wonderful, marvelous, amazing, awesome, breathtaking, sensational, stupendous, phenomenal, extraordinary, miraculous, prodigious, excellent, superb, outstanding, dazzling, magnificient, exquisite, super, fab(ulous), brill(iant), ace or wicked", in Japanese it's always "sugoi" - or "subarashii", but with a different tone of voice and facial expression.

In several dramas and anime, music is extremely important to give the right feeling. Without the music, it would probably be plain boring.

Japanese have been sucessful in the comics industry, because they know that facial expression is the key to conveying emotions without words. Anybody can read "some" (not all) manga and understand what's going on just by looking at the facial expression of the character. There are lot's of agreed signs that each express a particular emotion : red patch on the forehead or fist = anger, drops running on the temple and cheek = embarassment, nose bleeding = sexual excitment, green or purple face/cheeks/forehead = disgust or fear, blushing and crying are just what they are, etc.

Modern Japanese language lacks diversity, which is why there are few world-class Japanese writers, orators or actors, eventhough it's one of the world most populous and most developed country. That's also why Japanese are bad at learning languages.

I've often compared Japanese to Italians. When my parents came to Japan a few months ago, though I hadn't told them about my comparison, their opinion after their stay was that Japanese are similar to Italians for their extrovertedness. That might surprise those of you who've only known Japanese outside Japan, as Japanese tend to be much more introverted and shy when they aren't together or have to speak a foreign language (especially one like English that they can't pronounced, so they have a hard time giving emotions in the tone of their voice).