福島県立医科大学医学部整形外科

International Collaboration Beyond the Culture Gap Pages 1 2 3 4 5 6
	I have participated in the ISSLS since nearly its inception. There were very few Japanese participants at first. I have learned the importance and pleasure of studying together through the activity of this society. Today, I would like to talk about the importance of collaboration crossing interdisciplinary and national borders, based on my own experience as a Japanese member of ISSLS.
	I became the president of ISSLS in 2005, which was the 100th anniversary of the Japan-Norway diplomatic relationship. Japan and Norway are far distant countries, being at the east and west edges of the Eurasian continent. I am deeply honored to make my presidential address in Bergen, Norway during this memorial period.
	Prof. Nachemson is one of the charter members and still now a leading person of the society. He delivered a lecture with a title "Cross the Borders" as the Steindler Award Lecture. In the lecture he said, "We must cross both interdisciplinary and national borders…. Fortunately, we need not be multilinguistic because English has become the common scientific language." But for us, Japanese, the fact that English is the common scientific language is not fortunate.
	According to Samuel Huntington, the most important groupings in the world now are the major civilizations; Western, Latin American, African, Islamic, Sinic, Hindu, Orthodox, Buddhist and Japanese civilizations. Japanese civilization is very different from others. Japan has been modernized, but not completely westernized. Japanese civilization is only in Japan, one country, though each of the other civilizations includes two or more countries. Japan has no close cultural relation with other countries. This is why it is difficult for Japanese to communicate with other people in other civilizations.
	What image do you have of Japan? High technology? Traditional culture? Beautiful nature? Recently, young people may image animation like 'pokemon' or comics.
	I will tell you some typical differences from Western civilization easily found in our daily life. First, the way of sitting in the house is different. In Western countries, they sit on chairs with shoes. On the other hand, we sit on tatami or floors without shoes. Our way of sitting on tatami is very difficult for Western people.
	Greeting is also very different. Japanese usually bow. We never hug or kiss. So Western people may feel strange when they first meet Japanese.
	In Western countries, the ability to use good speech is very important, and children learn how to debate from an early age. In Japan, silence is gold and eloquence is silver. To assert oneself strongly is regarded as ungraceful. Our silence, smile or ambiguous attitude or response may make Western people feel uneasy.
	Books are quite opposite. On the left is Samuel Huntington's famous book. It is written horizontally from left to right and it is right handed. On the right is the book translated into Japanese. It is written vertically from right to left and it is left handed.
	Major religions in the world are mostly based on monotheism. Christianity, Islamism and Judaism all believe in monotheism.
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International Collaboration Beyond the Culture Gap