Abstract
This paper examines the Communication Improvement Initiative (CII) proffered to the United States by Japanese Prime Minister Kaifu Toshiki in 1990, a time of heightened concern over relations between Japan and the United States. The CII, as formulated at the highest levels of the Japanese government, was an attempt to instill “grassroots” interchange and communication between the people of the two countries. Drawing upon governmental and other documents and building upon studies in linguistic anthropology, this paper examines the CII as what I term an “ideology of communication” and sheds light on the manner in which micro-level practices of communication between people of different countries can be framed by broader considerations of international relations and national interest.
