I was a flight attendant for an international carrier for many years. As a flight attendant I had the opportunity to travel throughout the world and experience many different cultures. In my travels I found the Japanese culture to be the most difficult to understand and communication the most complicated. I never had an encounter per se, or a situation with a Japanese individual that was particularly unpleasant or pleasant, I found my experience more baffling than anything else. My experience and my limited understanding of the Japanese culture and intercultural communication are due to my many travels to the country with short layovers but many, many times.
I found them to be often too nice, too accommodating, always ready to help and always smiling but underneath this supposed pleasant façade, there was something that I found uneasy. They seemed like robots; everyone was perfectly groomed, well dressed, and following all the rules. One example I can never forget my first in Japan is however everyone obey the rules crossing streets, it was amazing to see that everyone waited patiently for the red light to turn green before even stepping off the pavement even if there was no cars in view; on the other hand, in Western society you rarely see such a situation. My last trip to Japan was greater than ten years ago, perhaps it is different now.
Japanese communication patterns, was sort of mysterious to me since I was use to the straight talk of Westerners. The Japanese tend to use words as only part of the message, there are also other factors such as silence, subtle body language, mood, and tone can imply something. For example the Japanese tend to be suspicious of words; they are more concerned with actions. They believe in using silence as a way of communicating, they believe it is better to talk too little than too much. Another cultural difference I found