Japanese Intercultural Communication Essay

These days, the world has become more global, and the connection between Japanese and people from other countries is stronger than before. However, there are still many people who have prejudice toward people from different countries. One of the reasons is that only a limited number of Japanese can communicate with foreign people, and those who can’t tend to have a biased way of thinking. Another reason is that Japanese media don’t usually report incidents that are against the government’s interest. Therefore, it is crucial to make people from various backgrounds to understand different culture, and to acquire media literacy.

First, it is important to give opportunities of learning other culture to many kinds of people. For example, people can open a cooking class using the community center, and invite foreign people living there as teachers. Since most Japanese mothers are housewives, it will be easy for them to make time for that. In the cooking class, the mothers can communicate with foreign people casually, and thus reduce their fear toward unknown culture. It is also effective to build up a culture learning club in elementary schools. Children are the most susceptible to new information, and if they can learn other cultures

Most Japanese think intercultural communication is difficult and is not necessary for leading a normal life. Therefore, it is essential to get them involved, and try to make the concept of cross-cultural communication more casual. In addition, people need to understand the backgrounds of those low-paid foreign workers so that they don’t get misunderstood. Also, media literacy is of great importance, since it prevents people from judging non-Japanese people in a biased way. Though it is a thorny path to make to make the majority understand other cultures, these three steps are worth