"HERE THERE IS NO SUCH KIND OF STRING" THE CROSS-CULTURAL PERCEPTIONS OF RECENTLY-ARRIVED VERSUS LONGER-TERM JAPANESE STUDENTS IN THE U.S.

On the basis of interviews with some recentlyarrived
and some longer-term Japanese students in the
U.S., we found some similarities and some major
differences between the perceptions of the groups on
a number of questions concerning their experiences in
the U.S. While perceived social constraints ("invisible
string") were felt to be much less, by both groups, and
their absence considered a good thing; a corollary
sense of isolation or distance between people was also
reported, by the longer-term group, as a negative
factor. While the newly-arrived group felt that they
would not change as a result of living in America, the
longer-term group almost unanimously pointed to
ways in which they had changed and the problems
they might have in readjusting to life in Japan. The
casual friendliness of Americans led the newly-arrived
to believe that it was easy to make good friends with
Americans, despite some encounters with prejudice,
while the longer-term group had developed more
complex perspectives.