Almost every culture has its social norms of conduct, called courtesy. The concept of “Reigi” (courtesy) in Japan was originated from Confucianism and it has been recognized of great importance in all human relationships, especially until the World War II.
The purpose of this research is to investigate and analyze the concept itself for the younger and older generations.
According to our preliminary survey, the concept has been often referred to that in the relation of persons such as parent-child, teacher-pupil, and senior-junior, and it is accompanied by the moral sentiment of respect, gratitude, submission, and harmony. Usually the adult regards it more important than the younger, and the female regards it more significant than the male.
(1) Semantic Differential method applied to this concept yielded two main factors for both older and younger generations. The one factor is “happiness”, and the other is “social constraint”. (2) From the classical books of ethics in Japan, tentative components of this concept were collected. In each relation of 11 principal human cases such as parent-child, the components were assessed by the constant sum method. The most important components rated are reliance, sincerity, and reverence, while etiquettes and wording in speech are least rated as a factor of courtesy. Factor analysis of the score matrix yielded two main factors. The one is generosity and mercy, and the other is modesty and non-pretension. Besides, one more factor of reverence-submission was extracted for the younger samples.
