In Japan, one becomes accustomed to people saying things that are patently false.

The hero interviewee who jacked a fat pitch into the third deck at Osaka Dome for a decisive home run will typically be asked if he was trying to hit a home run.

With few exceptions, he will answer, “I’m not a home run hitter. There are good hitters coming up behind me, and I was simply trying to make contact so I could set the table for them. I was fortunate to hit a home run and I’m happy about that.”

The crowd will roar when he says that. At the same time fans are praising his athletic feat, they are simultaneously honoring his obedience to Japan’s politeness rules. In Japan, one tells obvious, transparent lies to gloss over inconvenient truths – in this case trying to hit a home run in a baseball context where the answer to every tactical question is “play for one run regardless of the game situation.”

Trash talk

In my new gig as a tour guide, visitors often tell me they carry their personal trash with them until they can take deposit at their hotels, because they’ve been taught “Japanese people always take their trash home.”

Of course, when Japanese say, “We carry our trash home,” virtually every Japanese understands this to mean, “We carry our trash home if we fail to come across a convenience store where we can discretely deposit it in a bin marked ‘no personal or household trash.'”

Continue reading Japan’s white lies →