Quote Originally Posted by gaijinalways
I think Japanese and English people are more alike than I had previously thought (i.e. reserved, use indirect comments).
Kate Fox draws several parallels between Japanese and English people in her book 'Watching the English'. She puts it down (partly!) to living on quite a small, crowded island - and when you think about it, Japan and the UK do have some geographical similarities. While I think her book is way too simplistic, there do seem to be some points shared by Japanese and English 'social character' (for want of a better way of putting it) - particularly the 'politeness thing', which although manifested quite differently in the UK is still fairly noticeable once you start to think about it. It's maybe wrong to call it 'politeness', but really more like 'unspoken social rules' or code. e_e