There are a lot of foreigners in Japan these days, and while some stick to socializing with other expats, most do their best to fit into Japanese society. Which is hard, because Japanese culture is radically different from any other culture. Even though some foreigners - particularly Americans - learn to speak Japanese extremely well, some to the extent that you wouldn't immediately know the speaker is a foreigner over the phone, many continue to make the same old blunders all other foreigners make, causing them to come across as alien and weird, despite their linguistic ability.
Here are some tips on how to blend in to Japanese culture, whether you speak Japanese or not.
Respect Personal Space
This is something so many Westerners don't get. They will come really close to you, right in your face. Japanese people hate that. This is, by the way, a big difference between the Japanese and the Chinese; the Chinese have no respect for personal space whatsoever and will come so close that you can see the pores on their noses. That's one of the reasons most Japanese expats in China have a hard time and yearn to go back home where people are civilized.
The exact distance is hard to quantify, and depends on the surroundings, the occasion, the atmosphere, the number of people around, and how well you know each other, but under no circumstances should you go within an arms length. If the room is large, and there are few people around, the acceptable distance becomes longer. The basic idea is not to crowd the other person with your physical presence. The problem with Caucasians is compounded by the fact that they tend to be physically bigger and heavier.
Sometimes you can see a Japanese person in conversation with a big guy from Texas, and the Japanese will be shrinking into a corner while the Texan, oblivious, pushes forward and nearer, busily making a point.
Go Easy on Eye Contact
Japanese do make eye contact while conversing. It's important and you should. But you shouldn't make eye contact ALL the time. Eye contact, to the Japanese, is like bold text. Do not become like one of those annoying people whose entire email is composed of bold text. Use it sparingly, here and there, to emphasize a point, when necessary. The Japanese really hate to have a foreigner staring at them while going on and on about something. It becomes uncomfortable to have a pair of eyes barrelling down at you the whole time. While what the foreigner is saying may be true and correct, the words will be lost because all the Japanese listener will be thinking is "For Chrissake stop staring at me you nutcase!!!"
Use Japanese Pronunciation for English Words
This is a common mistake made even by foreigners who have been in Japan for decades, as well as some Japanese who have lived abroad for a long time. There are many foreign loan words that have been incorporated into Japanese, and of course place names (such as "Denver") will be foreign to begin with.
Despite being fluent in Japanese, the foreigners will pronounce these words in the original, English way, believing that the original is the correct way.
That is totally wrong. When you're speaking in Japanese, the correct way to pronounce a Japanese word is in the JAPANESE WAY. Don't say something like "Ee, watashi wa Denver de sodachimashita." The foreign word will stand out because for that particular word you are altering your diction completely. The correct way to say "Yeah, I grew up in Denver" would be: "Ee, watashi wa Denbaa de sodachimashita."
