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- Title
Toward Counseling the Japanese in America: A Cross-Cultural Primer.
- Authors
Henkin, William A.
- Abstract
In order to respond effectively to members of the Japanese-American community, counselors must understand this subculture's history and attributes, unique even among American minorities. <BR> Whether we work as psychotherapists, vocational guides or counselors in any other capacity, we in the helping professions are uniquely affected by a generalized cultural image of the Japanese in America as "conveniently complacent ... hardworking, outstanding students, and ... well-educated professionals [who are] quiet, polite, comfortably affluent, and [belong] to stable, closely-knit families" (Mass, 1981). The mainstream culture perceives them as a group famous for success, extremely low crime rates, a high level of child-rearing concerns, and a low incidence of mental and emotional disturbance (Mass, 1981; Sue, 1981). Whether or not this image accurately reflects the Japanese-American population as a whole, it certainly does not apply to all Japanese-Americans in particular (Mass, 1981; for a virtually identical view on the image of Asian-Americans as a whole, see Sue & Sue, 1973; for a more or less radical explication of the theory that aspects of the reality expressed by or projected upon an identifiable group of individuals perpetrate the stereotype through which outsiders subsequently perceive the group, see Tong, 1978). The apparently gracious, but nonetheless condescending, stereotype has made it difficult for specific Japanese in America to be seen individuals, rather than as representatives of a bicultural image upheld by members of both the mainstream culture and the Japanese-American subculture itself.
- Subjects
UNITED States; JAPANESE Americans -- Cultural assimilation; JAPANESE Americans; ASSIMILATION (Sociology); MINORITIES; RACIAL &; ethnic attitudes; SOCIAL history
- Publication
Journal of Counseling & Development, 1985, Vol 63, Issue 8, p500
- ISSN
0748-9633
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/j.1556-6676.1985.tb02745.x