This theoretical essay purports to explore the conceptual significance of amae for Japanese communication research

This theoretical essay purports to explore the conceptual significance of amae for Japanese communication research. The essay first reconsiders the in-terrelationship of amae with the enryo-sasshi interaction style by reviewing the pertinent literature within and outside the discipline of communication. Second, the essay reconceptualizes amae as two types of human communication needs (i.e., message-expanding and message-accepting needs) that both encourage and discourage the enryo-sasshi interaction style. Based on this reconceptualization of amae, the essay finally proposes the new concept of meta-sasshi (viz., sasshi on the amae level or amae reading) and presents a systematic model of Japanese amae-based communication.

His findings suggested that Japanese culture was among the high-context cultures that uses indirect verbal expression, as opposed to North American and Western European cultures wherein direct verbal communication is more the norm. Subsequent work by Hall and others (Asai & Kameoka, 2005;Bito et al., 2007;Lebra, 1976;Miike, 2003) identified the concepts on (favor and obligation), omoiyari (empathy for someone), enryo (restraint, being considerate of others), meiwaku (bothering others), and sasshi (reading the situation and mind) as examples of the unwritten interdependence of social norms and values in Japanese culture. Such core concepts may play a role in caregiving within the family context and, as Kagawa-Singer, Padilla, and Ashing-Giwa (2010) observed, may illustrate the role of culture as a determinant of psychosocial well-being and QOL. ...

... "Social self-restraint, termed enryo, is a product of the suppression of individuality under the pressure of group solidarity and conformity" (Lebra, 1976, p. 252), and includes a fear of bothering others (meiwaku). These two influential concepts have been previously described in the general literature on caregiving and healthrelated decision making (Asai & Kameoka, 2005;Bito et al., 2007;Miike, 2003). Although family caregivers were aware of their strong needs for support and assistance in maintaining both their own and the patient's everyday lives, they were, as primary caregivers, reluctant to ask for help from others, including other family members. ...
... Understanding each other without speaking is one characteristic of communication norms in Japanese culture. This specific communication feature is a part of Japanese norms called omoiyari (reading and having empathy for others' feelings), commonly found in high-context cultural societies such as Japan (Asai & Kameoka, 2005;Bito et al., 2007;Lebra, 1976;Miike, 2003). For example, taking the patient back home seemed to be particularly important for both the patient and the caregiver, but this too was not clearly spoken of between them.