Japanese Kuuki Theory

Kuuki, the Japanese linguistic equivalent of air, refers to the atmosphere of a situation to which all those involved are expected to pay respect. At the heart of the kuuki process is some kind of mechanism that aggravates a situation in a way that those involved in the issue are compelled to comply with the position put forth. This idea is widely used in Japan to describe what happens in various settings, from small groups to businesses to political contexts, in which people are said to be under the influence of the kuuki process or spirit. Political mood and political environment are terms that get at some of what is involved in kuuki. It emerges in situations when a subject is of critical importance to a group. Thus, kuuki might emerge among members of a particular labor union but not among members of the public who do not have a vested interest in the issues. Unique terms and expressions such as kuuki and K.Y. (a recent slang word that came from Kuuki ga Yomenai, or insensitive to the atmosphere of the situation) have evolved and are used in daily conversation to reference this phenomenon.

Translations are always imprecise, but kuuki is often compared to ideology, Zeitgeist, climate of opinion, and spiral of silence. Kuuki is similar to ideology in that it functions as a system of strong social pressure requiring compliance. In contrast to ideology, however, which typically refers to abstract beliefs such as socialism, capitalism, nationalism, or feminism, kuuki pertains to specific issues or problems such as the dispatch of American troops to Iraq, a situation involving corporate fraud, or some kind of sexual indiscretion on the part of a political leader. In this sense, kuuki may be more similar to the German term Zeitgeist, although Zeitgeist is more abstract and closer to ideology than is kuuki.

Kuuki also has been compared to the notion of climate of opinion, although this concept has evolved to refer principally to distribution patterns of public opinion rather than to the opinions themselves. In the kuuki process, however, the opinions themselves, as well as the knowledge that one opinion is the majority opinion, are the issue and altogether exert strong political, social, and psychological pressure to comply with the group thinking or norm on something.

Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, responsible for the concept of the spiral of silence, uses the concept of climate of opinion in a sense very similar to that of kuuki, which she acknowledges in the preface of the Japanese language version of her book.

The mass media play a crucial role in creating and sustaining kuuki because they, at least to some degree, can affect opinions on a certain issue being considered by the general public as well as political leaders. For example, Newspaper A, which opposes a particular bill, may carry more nonsupportive opinions about it than Newspaper B, which supports the bill. In addition to or instead of directly speaking against the bill in its editorial, Newspaper A can give its readers an impression that the majority of people oppose the bill by simply reporting more nonsupportive opinions than supportive [Page 574]opinions. In this sense, Newspaper A contributes to, if not creates, a kuuki effect, causing readers to go along with its stance.

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