| Summary: | The purpose of this study was to investigate "themes,"
patterns of accounts related to the lived experiences of
interpersonal relationships between Koreans and Japanese living
in Japan. The research question was: What is the texture of the
voices of Koreans living in Japan and their host Japanese in
their interculturally lived experiences of interpersonal
relationships? Individual interviews were conducted in Japanese
with six Koreans living in Japan. In addition, interviews were
held with three Japanese who had interpersonal relationships with
three of the Korean interview subjects. The relationships varied
from low, to moderate, to high intimacy. Four themes emerged
through interpretive analysis of the participants' accounts of
their relationships: Japanese attitudes towards Koreans, a sense
of commonality, cultural differences, and involvement. In the
first three theme categories, two to three subthemes were
identified. Japanese discriminatory attitudes towards Koreans
seemed to have negative influences on some of the Korean
participants. Also, the way the participants perceived cultural
differences rather than the differences themselves appeared to be
important in developing interpersonal relationships. The
educational implication of this study is the implementation of a
curriculum of Japanese-as-a-second-language that focuses on
cultural awareness and appreciation of cultural difference among
cultures as well as those within Japanese culture.
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