Enryo-Sasshi Theory

Many Westerners, especially U.S. Americans, share the perception that the Japanese communicate “ambiguously,” “passively,” “politely,” “modestly,” and even “silently.” Sociolinguists and communication researchers have suggested that Japanese communication is characterized by less verbalization, subtle nonverbal cues, and longer pauses. Implicit nonverbal messages seem to play a more important role in Japanese social interactions than do explicit verbal messages. Japanese enryo-sasshi theory was constructed to account for the sources of these perceived cross-cultural differences and demystify the psychology and process of Japanese communication. Satoshi Ishii, a Japanese pioneer in interpersonal and intercultural communication research, first proposed the enryo-sasshi model in discussing Japanese nonverbal behaviors in 1973. He refined it in 1984, as a key to understanding Japanese interpersonal relations. It is one of the first non-Western attempts to systematically theorize an Asian mode of communication with Asian indigenous concepts.

Enryo and sasshi, the two key communication concepts of Ishii's theory, had long been addressed and adumbrated separately in Japan studies. Ishii linked these cultural concepts in a theoretically intelligible manner. Enryo refers generally to being modest and reserved, exercising self-restraint, being considerate and thoughtful, and refraining from making requests or asking favors. Enryo functions as a psychological filter and requires control of one's thoughts and actions so as to avoid carelessly saying and doing things. Sasshi roughly means social sensitivity, empathic guesswork, mind reading, and “putting yourself in another's shoes.” Sasshi demands that one should be very perceptive and receptive in order to understand what others mean or to sense of what others want or need. Ishii maintained that enryo on the part of the speaker and sasshi on the part of the listener constitute the two complementary wheels of Japanese interpersonal communication.

In his 1984 model, Ishii identified a total of 16 stages of the enryo-sasshi communication process. Person A has certain meanings (i.e., ideas, feelings, and/or experiences) to convey to Person B (Stage 1). In the process of encoding the meanings into verbal and/or nonverbal messages, Person A first scrutinizes them through the psychological filter of enryo (Stage 2). He or she carefully considers whether the encoded messages will possibly damage interpersonal and situational harmony. If Person A [Page 251]suspects that the messages can hurt Person B or disturb the atmosphere of wa (harmony), he or she will reencode and reframe the meanings so as to further “soften” the messages. Ishii called this act internal self-feedback (Stage 3). Person A will send out the messages only when he or she deems that they are safe and perhaps vague (Stage 4). Due to this enryo-screening process in consideration of the other communicator and the communication context, psychologically speaking, the message-sending “exit” of the Japanese is narrower than their message-receiving “entrance.” Even after he or she has sent the messages, Person A can still rethink the messages and modify parts of them. Ishii called this act external self-feedback (Stage 5).

To make the enryo-influenced communication smooth and successful, Person B is expected to receive the messages with his or her entrance wide open (Stage 6). In the process of decoding Person A's implicit and often unclear messages, Person B uses his or her sasshi competence to “expand” or “develop” the limited and restricted information (Stage 8). Person B deciphers the intended meaning of the messages (Stage 9). Person B then will follow the same message-sending process of enryo (Stages 9–14), and Person A will follow the same message-receiving process of sasshi (Stages 15–16). Both enryo and sasshi may be operating when Japanese communicators frequently use silences or “awkward” pauses during the conversation. A person of good sasshi, called sasshi ga ii, is highly appreciated in Japan partly because the enryo-sasshi communication style is commonly employed in everyday life.

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