Page 254 - Culture Technology Communication

Preserving Communication Context 237

9. Mouer and Sugimoto 1986 trace the long history of the theme of
Japanese uniqueness and suggest that, while the ideology of Japanese
uniqueness has been used in the service of many interests, the basic as-
sumption that all Japanese possess a common set of attitudes and share
similar behavior patterns has remained largely unquestioned, particularly
in English language publications. They conclude that the relationship be-
tween this ideology and views of Japanese society is maintained by a com-
plex network of interpersonal and inter-institutional relationships. In other
words, Japanology is a self-fulfilling prophesy, a social construction almost
universally subscribed to.
10. In fact, the Matsushita Lab has continued to pursue its research
into the blurring of the physical and the virtual. A recent presentation at the
10th annual symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST)
in Banff, Alberta (October 14–17, 1997) was entitled “A virtual office envi-
ronment based on a shared room realizing awareness space and transmit-
ting awareness information.”
11. Maiya, personal communication 8–6–95. Maiya’s interest in
groupware is how kuuki might be transmitted at a distance.
12. Watabe, personal communication 23–6–95

13. To some extent, Japanese researchers may also have been focus-
ing on developing a distinctive Japanese style and building a reputation in
the international community by choosing to emphasize the commonalities in
their work.
14. Design choices are, of course, subject to constraint and enable-
ment by situational variables which are actualized in a chain of events in
the design process. How these come about would be the subject of another
paper.

References
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Andrews, S. B., and H. G. Milller. 1987 “Expanding Market Share: The Role
of American Corporations in Technical Assistance.” International
Journal of Manpower 6: 25–27.

Bannon, L. and K. Schmidt, K. 1991. “CSCW: Four Characters in Search of
a Context.” In Studies in Computer Supported Cooperative Work, eds.
J. Bowers and S. Benford, 3–16. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Bansler, J. 1989. “Systems Development in Scandinavia: Three Theoretical
Schools,” Office, Technology and People 4: 117–133.