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The concept of a "Japanese no". Why is it called that?
When you make an offer and package it with undesirable reasons that the recipient will not want to accept, I ve heard this practice called a "Japanese no".
One example is giving someone an intentionally high price, when they ask you to provide a service you don t want to provide. Instead of saying "no", you say "I ll do it for $25000", when it is realistically only a $100 task.
My question is, why is it called this? Is there a historical example? Is it because the word "no" in the Japanese language doesn t directly translate? What is the background to this term?
It s a difficult concept to search, because most results are standard language lessons, instead of an explanation of this idiom.
2 Answers
- ?Lv 75 years agoFavorite Answer
I am no authority on the Japanese language, but I believe the Japanese don't like to say "no" because it may seem rude, or too abrupt. Therefore they wrap it up in some way that MEANS "no" but possibly sounds like "yes, but it's difficult (or even impossible)." You are supposed to accept that straight off as a "no," and not press them further.
- Anonymous5 years ago
In Japan people generally will never (OK, rarely) say "No" to anything, because the whole society is based on a massive networking system and if you say directly "No" to someone, there would be the danger of burning bridges. Usually Japanese people who mean no will tell you all sort of things but an actual "Yes!", very common is "I have to think about it", or "That would be nice!". If a Westerner hears these answers and does not know that he may take it literally and wait forever for the other side to do what they allegedly promised, he might get ask again, thinking they forgot, but then they will think "Why is s/he so rude to ask again, when I already politely made it clear that I am not into it?" so both sides might end up getting very angry with each other when in reality they tried to be polite.
In many ways in Japan one tries to avoid any directness, because it is considered rude and not elegant.
