Cross tabulation for significant variables between males and female

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question for further research. An educated guess would be if an English speaker is saying 50/50, then they most likely are using English more. This may be simplifying complex language

environments, but those who answered 50/50 also answered in the average or low range for the self-rated language scale in the first half of the questionnaire.

One of the items covered a question that often arose during past interviews. It was about the supposed phenomenon of when the seat next to the non-Japanese on the train was always the last one empty. This would technically be labeled as a “microaggressions”, but was added to the survey out of curiosity. Some respondents expressed they were offended by the question. No harm was meant by it. It was rather self-indulgent to do so, and I apologize for bothering my fellow long-termers with such questioning. Q90 (n = 301, males = 181, females =120) was a “yes”

or “no” question about whether or not respondents had experienced “the empty seat syndrome”

or not. 73.1% of respondents said they had experienced it. 77.9% of males and 65.8% of females answered “yes”. This is open to many interpretations, which this paper does not attempt to do because of the lack of proper data. Respondents wrote in the comment section while they answered “yes”, they by no means are bothered by it, and one respondent said he even enjoys having the extra space. The goal was to discuss the existence of it, not the reasons for it or how people feel. A researcher has to have some fun now and again.

3.4 Cross tabulation for significant variables between males and females

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Starting off with Q41 (Table 2) as one of many items that resulted in a variance in the way the sexes responded. Respondents were asked if they would consider themselves more patient after living in Japan over the long-term. This also had a clear positive result of 38.7%

for “agree” and 31.5% for “strongly agree”. There was an interesting split for males and females for both of the top two choices. While men answered “agree” slightly more than females, females answered “strongly agree” at 38%, which results in a 10.8% variance compared to the males at 27.2%.

Table 2: Q41 You consider yourself more patient after coming to Japan.

Personality has been shown to be factor when entering a host culture (Ward and Leong 2004). Some personalities fit better than others, which is the basis of the culture fit concept discussed in Chapter 4. Q42 (Table 3) directly asked respondents if they feel their personality fits into the Japanese construct. Many of the LTWs stated 48.2% “agree” followed by 19.1% who

“strongly agree” that their personality is suitable for Japan. There was a significant split between males and females for “agree”. Males answered 52.5% while females responded at 41.7% with all of the other choices coming closely together.

The topic changes as Q44 (Table 4) covers whether respondents feel they have job security. It was a fairly flat response with every choice scoring over 15%, although “agree” was the highest response with 25.8%. When broken down between the sexes this number shows more significance. Males answered at 30.8% for “agree” while females answered with 18.3%, which is a significant split of 12.5%. Employment or income security is a key factor with life satisfaction.

76 Table 3: Q42 Your personality is suitable for Japan.

Table 4: Q44 You have job security.

Both Q51 (Table 5) and Q52 (Table 6) showed variance between the sexes, which is understandable do to the nature of the question. Q51 asked if respondents thought women had a harder time than men in social environments. The responses showed a fairly strong response with a combined score of “agree” and “strongly agree” at 58.6% and 26.3% and 32.3% when broken down in their respective scores. The split between the sexes showed males agreed at 36.1% with the statement while only 26.7% of females agreed, while on the opposite end of the scale 25.8% of females disagreed compared to 20% of males. This trend continued in Q52. When asked if respondents thought women have it harder than men in a Japanese work environment, males answered 42.5% for “agree” and females replied with significant result of 31.4%. The score for all respondents was 38.1% (agreed) and 20.1% (strongly agreed) for the top two choices.

Studies have been done on Western women in the Japanese workplace, but were limited by sample size (Volkmar and Westbrook 2005).

Throughout this study the social connectedness of western females compared to males seems to be fairly evident in the interview results as well as the survey. Q58 (Table 7) adds to

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this conclusion. Respondents were asked if they feel down after a cultural mishap. While the overall trend reflects a negatively skewed response, the female “agree” response resulted in 29.2%. This is 11% higher than the male response of 18.2%.

Q61 (Table 8) inquired if respondents were satisfied with their professional performance in Japan which is considered a connection to life satisfaction. While a combined score for “agree”

(42.4%) and “strongly agree” (20.2%) fell at 62.6% there was almost a 10% difference between males and females. 26.1% of females said they strongly agreed while 16.4% of males answered the same resulting in a 9.7% difference.

A long stay in Japan does not necessarily mean respondents feel they have stopped learning about their adopted country. Q62 (Table 9) and Q63 (Table 10) are somewhat related.

Their relation is one of progress and their ability to have accomplished a level of comfort while still feeling open to parts of Japan they haven’t learned about yet. Q62 asked if they still feel they have more to learn about Japan. This resulted in 37.7% agreeing and 23% strongly agreeing with the statement. Females agreed 11.4% more than males (males 33.2%, females 44.6%) and males strongly agreed 6.5% more than females (males 25.5%, females 19%). Q63 was a general question asking if they felt comfortable living in Japan. There was a strong positive response with “agree” receiving 53.5% and “strongly agree” receiving 29.6%. This is consistent with other similar questions on the topic of satisfaction.

Q67 (Table 11) and Q68 (Table 12) both reflect the interactions of westerners with Japanese nationals in different contextual situations. Q67 showed a 10.3% split between males and females when asked if they can express their feelings to Japanese friends. The general score for “agree” was 36.8. Males replied at 40.9% and females at 30.6% for agree. Fewer females agree that they can freely express themselves even within a friendship with Japanese counterparts. As a total, Q68 revealed a slightly negative skewed total with 35.5% of

respondents answering the middle of the scale and 28.6% replied with “disagree”. The difference

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in genders was seen in the “agree” response with 25.3% of males and 16.8% of females expressing they feel free to express their feelings to Japanese co-workers.

Table 5: Q51 Foreign women have a harder time than foreign men in social settings in Japan.

Table 6: Q52 Foreign women have a harder time than foreign men in a Japanese work environment.

Table 7: Q58 You feel down after you experience a cultural mishap.

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Table 8: Q61 You are satisfied with your performance in your professional life in Japan

Table 9: Q62 You feel you still have a lot to learn about Japan.

Table 10: Q63 You feel comfortable living in Japan.

Table 11: Q67 You feel free to express your feelings around Japanese friends.

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Table 12: Q68 You feel free to express your feelings around Japanese co-workers.

Q69 (Table 13) and Q70 (Table 14) were designed to be connected. Q69 showed some interesting results with a break between females and males when it came to whether or not they had experienced a cultural difficulty that made them want to leave Japan. While a large majority replied with 21.1% and 40.5% for “strongly disagree” and “disagree” respectively, 25.8% of males and 13.9% of females answered they “strongly disagree”. There was also a difference with the replies for “agree”. 11% of males and 21.3% of females answered “agree”. It can be clearly observed some women perceive more cultural difficulty than males. An

interesting follow-up to the previous question is whether or not respondents have a support group to deal with such cultural difficulties. The general responses for Q70 were 36.9% and 17.3% for the top two answers, but males scored lower with 17.2% and only 7.4% of females answering “disagree”. This is contrasted by only 10% of males but 28.1% of females stating

“strongly agree”. Females are almost three times more likely to have a support group.

Table 13: Q69 You have experienced a cultural difficulty that has made you want to leave Japan.

81 Table 14: Q70 You have a support network around you.

During the first set of interviews, several of the respondents mentioned how they had been told they are more Japanese than Japanese. This was not connected to language ability because this was stated by both those who rated themselves high and low on the language scales. Q71 (Table 15) attempts to ask if respondents had been told this by native Japanese.

While 29.9% and 22% answered “agree” and “strongly agree”, the bigger difference was found in the space between the sexes. Males answered 18% while females responded with 28.1% for

“strongly agree”.

Table 15: Q71 You have been told you are more Japanese than Japanese.

Q73 (Table 16) asks whether westerner foreigners can live a functional life in Japan without Japanese language ability. Respondents replied with 31.8% and 20.3% for “agree” and

“strongly agree” respectively. There was also a strong showing for the middle ground at 29.2%.

When split into male and female answers for “disagree”, the results are 23.5% and 37.7%

respectively. Language focused items often resulted in variance between the sexes. The basic definition of “functional life” may vary from gender to gender.

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Table 16: Q73 Long term residents can live a functional life without speaking Japanese.

Past studies have discussed the interconnectedness between language and understanding the culture of a country (Kramsch 1998). Q75 (Table 17) directly inquired if the Japanese

language was needed to understand the host culture. The responses were 36% and 27.7% for

“agree” and “strongly agree” respectively. There was little variance between males and females.

The question of whether Japanese employers value Japanese language skills of workers were observed. Bilingual employees have a highly unusual skill, but their skills are not always reflected in compensation or interest by many employers of western foreigners in Japan. It was reported that Peruvian immigrants working in factories were not compensated any differently whether they spoke the language or not (Moorehead, 2010). This is also true for the western foreign group. Language skills tend to become more pertinent after receiving employment rather than being a prerequisite of initial employment. Q76 (Table 18) asked if respondents used Japanese at their place of employment. 34.6% and 33.9% for “agree” and “strongly agree”

with a combined 68.5% saying they use Japanese for their job or business, with 16.3% in the middle. 41.2% of females agreed with this statement compared to 30.2% for males. While this question is inquiring whether or not they use Japanese at their job, the level to which they use it was not specified.

The final group of questions focuses on discrimination and microaggressions. Out of the several items on discrimination Q83 (Table 19) was the most representative of a divide between sexes. Q83 asked respondents if they have been discriminated against by their in-laws (if applicable). Females answered 18.1% for “agree” followed by 9.1% of males. The trend was

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observed on the opposite side with 35.4% of males stating they “disagree” and 25.5% of females for the same choice. A total score of 30.6% and 31.8% for “strongly disagree” and “disagree”

respectively was observed. Western females who marry Japanese nationals are more likely than their male counterparts to experience unfair treatment by the Japanese in-laws.

Table 17: Q75 Japanese ability is necessary to understand the culture.

Table 18: Q76 You need to use Japanese for your current work or business.

Table 19: Q83 You have been discriminated against by in-laws. (if applicable)

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Q85 (Table 20) and Q86 (Table 21) cover the topic of microaggressions. This topic was brought into discussion in Japan several years prior to this study by Arudo Debito¹⁸. At the end of his article, he mentioned he hoped social scientists try to quantify how microaggressions affect non-Japanese. The research offered in this dissertation does not cover all non-Japanese, but it is a start. This topic also arose several times in interviews which resulted in these two basic items. Q85 showed a large majority believe microaggressions exist in Japan. While microaggressions most likely exist in every country, data showing the argument of whether the group in question experiences such encounters in Japan is crucial to even have the discussion in the first place. The combination of “agree” (34.9%) and “strongly agree” (34.2%) resulted in 69.1% answering on the positive side of the item with 24.9% in the middle. A variance between males and females for “strongly agree” was 28.7% and 42.5% respectively. This is a strong observable difference between the sexes which was also mirrored in Q86.

When respondents were asked if they had experienced microaggressions in Q86, 34.6%

answered “agree” followed by 31.5% answering “strongly agree” to create a combined score of 66.1%. 21.8% chose the middle response. An observed difference between males and females was again present for the “strongly agree” choice at 26% for males and 39.7% for females. More research would be needed to determine why these differences occur. Any inferences made from the results of these final two items would be fairly subjective.

18 This is reference to a 2012 article on microaggressions in Japan written by Debito Arudo.Title: Yes, I can use chopsticks: the everyday ‘microaggressions’ that grind us down. Can be found at:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/05/01/issues/yes-i-can-use-chopsticks-the-everyday-microaggressions-that-grind-us-down/#.V2chUtR95Id

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Table 20: Q85 You think micro-aggressions exist against foreigners in Japan.

Table 21: Q86 You have experienced micro-aggressions.