Saturday, November 19, 2011

Ambiguity 曖昧

Radioactive contamination of rice in Fukushima was announced in recent news. In not only Fukushima and neighboring prefectures but almost other prefecture radioactive materials are measured. Eight month has passed since nuclear power plant’s accident happened. We spend ordinary life. However, we are afraid of invisible fear. We don’t know when radioactive materials are influenced in our body.

Other countries people might not be able to understand some ambiguous expression or attitude of Japanese. It is a one of Japanese culture and ambiguity is sometimes a good way for our communication. A candid expression sometimes stirs up discord in our society. Japanese fortunately can suppose the real meaning of ambiguous attitude or expression. It is difficult to explain why we can, but we imagine real meanings by the tone, the look, or atmosphere. In case of friend, we often use these ambiguous expressions on purpose to avoid quarrel between us.

However, the ambiguous expression or attitude of government or TEPCO will bring distrust for us and in international society. We suspect that TEPCO conceals the truth for us to avoid confusion. Everyone is interested in this problem. This isn’t a problem for Japan. It is serious issue for everyone who lives on earth. It isn’t too much to say that this fact influences to our future.

Japan must unveil all of truth and data for radioactive materials.

4 comments:

KeyC said...

I tried to send a private message, but couldn't find any function here.

I love your blog, that is just what I was looking for. It is very interesting to read about the differents between our countries.
It is hard to really "understand" the fears and sorrows japan must go through, 'cause I never experienced such "incidents".
I hope you feel well and can life your daily life without fear again soon.

greetings

Ricky said...

Thank you for your comment! I'm happy you are interested in Japan.

I know your country decided to stop using nuclear power plant. It is good choice for people. There are a lot of problems of nuclear power plant. I think it is too dangerous.
I hope everyone think about our convenient life once. This accident in Japan might be a chance to change our way of life.

Anonymous said...

Dear sweet memory,

My name is Dean and I am from Singapore.

Thank you very much for sharing your experiences as a Japanese living in Japan. One of my friends who loves Japan very much introduced me to your blog. Ambiguity seems to be a good form of 'protection' but sometimes it might be harmful in the long term.

I think the fear is not only within Japan but people from outside Japan also fear the nuclear situation. But I believe a lot of people outside of Japan, like me, still care about Japan and the Japanese people very much.

Please take care and continue blogging so more of us will be able to understand and appreciate Japan, the Japanese and the culture.

Thanks!

Dean

Ricky said...

Hi, Dean,
Thank you for your message. We always appreciate that many people outside of Japan are warried about our situation and send kind massages to us like you.

About Ambiguity, There is a case and problem that the answer is not one, for example Yes or No, can or cannot... So we tend to use ambiguose expression. It depends on situation, however, we can choose the best way and often resolve the problem. Because situation always change and the answer isn't only one. We consider every situations.

However, as you said, ambiguous expression often causes misunderstanding in international society.

I hope you enjoy my blog! Please say to your friend who introduce my blog to you, "Thank you!"