In THE JAPANESE MIND, Roger Davies offers Westerners an invaluable key to the unique aspects of Japanese culture. Readers will gain a clear understanding of what really makes the Japanese, and their society, tick. Among the topics explored are: aimai (ambiguity), amae (dependence upon others' benevolence), chinmoku (silence in communication), gambari (perseverance), giri (social obligation), kenkyo (the appearance of modesty), zoto (gift giving), and much more.

2007-07-04 nihonjinron -nothing useful

I've lived in Japan for 5 years and speak the language fluently and quite frankly this book offers nothing but tired concepts and a trite superficial rehash of nihonjin-ron ideology, pleasant to Japanese right wingers and 'japanologists'.

The section on 'AMAE' offers nothing but direct quotes from Doi who's work, popular in the 1960s, is largly anecdotal and discredited.

Try Peter Dale's 'the myth of Japanese unique-ness' of Sugimoto's excellent 2003 book 'An introduction to Japanese society' which is based on scientific research and fact not silly notions of Japanese as a homogenous borg like organism that can be studied from afar and defined by a few 'key concepts'.