'Tatemae' and 'Honne' – White Lies and Honesty in Japanese Society (2002) | Hacker News Reader

'Tatemae' and 'Honne' – White Lies and Honesty in Japanese Society (2002)

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14 pointsyamrzou6 comments

As a foreigner quite integrated into Japan (living here for over 5 years, married to Japanese, working at a Japanese company), I have also succumbed to 建前 (Tatemae; 'built in front', going around what's 'built in front'. around the bush?). 本音 (Honne; 'real sound') is just what people do in the West (speak their true thoughts), but not so much in Japan. As the article mentioned, people you (at long last) become more than 知り合い (shiriai; common acquaintances) or people with power will often speak abruptly (as 本音 is felt as such). Even so, it took my wife a bit of training to break out of her shell. Now, she can cuss me out in English without hesitation :)

建前 (I'd even consider it brown-nosing sometimes) is something I think that bugs many foreigners living in Japan, as it does me because it's done so commonplace here. I'm starting to do it (unknowingly, but probably from positive-feedback) just for the amount of gregariousness it brings. I would even go further to say that Japanese language it self is blemished in 建前 because of the culture's apprehension towards conflict and directness.

My mere observation. I had a morning meeting today, and found myself mouth full of 建前.

How did you acquire a job in Japan? How difficult was it to obtain a residence? Was a guarantor necessary?

I got my current employment being introduced by someone inside. I found my previous company via job website, here are two that I find most helpful:

https://japan-dev.com/jobs

https://www.tokyodev.com/

Obtaining residence: my current visa is (quite long): "Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/ Int'l Services" (技術・人文知識・国際業務) I got this visa sponsored by my first company, which is the most common thing for foreigners. Mine is 5 years, some are just a year long. It all depends on the company and how they file your paperwork.

I don't have permanent residency. I could switch over to spousal visa, but since I still have a lot of time left with my visa, I'm not going to bother the bureaucracy. Also, getting residency isn't as easy; it's like a point system here: how long you've been working, if you went to school in Japan, JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test), etc.

Guarantor is only necessary for renting apartments (from my experience).

Did your company handle apartment-finding/ house hunting for you or did you do it on your own? While you aren't a permanent resident, are you treated as a permanent resident for tax purposes?

Regardless of industry, some companies have services for helping you find an apartment, others will have apartments specifically for relocation purposes. Specific to IT, I've never heard a company offering the same things. Some will fly you out. Finding an apartment isn't too difficult although you can only look at the "foreigner list" of apartments.

Regarding tax, it doesn't change. There aren't any breaks nor special levees for foreigners/people with just a work-visa. You get taxed the same (you can even participate in ふるさと納税 [furusato-nōzei] which is a system where you can decide to pay a certain amount to a different prefecture for tax deductions the following year + a gift from the prefecture that you can pick. The gifts are the best part; you can get high grade Japanese beef, high quality fruits, etc).

I think one could argue that bullshit tatemae is rampant in corporate America too.

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