@article{oai:tsukuba.repo.nii.ac.jp:00041850,
 author = {CAPOBIANCO, Paul},
 journal = {国際日本研究, Journal of International and advanced Japanese studies},
 month = {Feb},
 note = {This paper examines the changing nature of interpersonal relations between Japanese and foreign residents of Japan. Due to various domestic and international mechanisms, Japan’s demographics have changed substantially in recent decades and are expected to change even further in the immediate future. One effect of these changes has been an increased presence of foreigners living and working in Japan, which is engendering newfound contexts through which Japanese society engages with diverse forms of cultural Otherness. Previous scholarship has shown that Japan’s relationships with different foreign and minority populations have been largely problematic in nature and that foreign populations have formerly been relegated to the social peripheries. Majority-minority relationships have tended to be conceptualized in a predominantly volatile fashion that reinforces a rigid dichotomy between Japanese and outsiders. However, given Japan’s changing demographics and the corresponding diversification of interactions presently taking place within Japan, it is worthy to investigate more meticulously the conceptual and material products of these intercultural encounters. Utilizing qualitative ethnographic data, this paper suggests that the interpersonal dynamics between foreigners and Japanese are changing in ways that lead some Japanese to adopt a more positive image of foreigners. Drawing on theoretical insights from intercultural communication studies and applied linguistics, this paper elucidates how Japan’s socio-demographic changes are creating new opportunities for Japanese and foreigners to reconceptualize themselves with greater orientations towards the other party, which results in allowing more positive forms of interpersonal relationships to emerge. This paper shows how these novel relationships develop and explains the important role that critical reflection plays in reconsidering the categorical constructs of Japanese and Other. These encounters and critical reflections materially manifest in emergent identities that allow Japanese and foreign residents of Japan to reorient themselves with greater proximity to the other party. However, despite these reorientations, barriers continue to exist that prevent more constructive relations from developing.},
 pages = {205--222},
 title = {<Recearch Note>Bridging the Gap between Japanese and Foreign Communities through Communication and Critical Reflection},
 volume = {9},
 year = {2017}
}