earticle

영어

This study aims to clarify contents and structure of the image of Koreans held by Japanese university students and to predict the misunderstandings that may arise in interpersonal communication between Koreans and Japanese. In order to ascertain contemporary image of Koreans correctly and systematically, two questionnaire surveys were conducted in two phases. First, a free response style survey was conducted among 507 Japanese university students in Japan. Respondents’ reported images of Koreans were classified into 24 categories. Second, an inventory survey was conducted among 621 Japanese university students in Japan. Five factors of the Korean image were extracted by a factor analysis of the data. The findings are as follows: (1) there are five viewpoints ―“a friendly neighbor,” “passionate depicter,” “person who has strong feelings,” “person who has anti‐Japanese sentiment,” and “person who is competent and diligent”― at the root of the Korean image among Japanese university students; and (2) the image of “passionate person who has strong feelings” is very strong and the image of Koreans is highly compound. These findings were compared with Korean university students’ image of Japanese. The results showed that in interpersonal communication between Koreans and Japanese, the antipathy between two groups could cause unnecessary tension and excessive wariness, and the image related to personal relations for each other could work as preconception.