Abstract
With several returness, who had been deeply involved with the American cultural meaning system while growing up in the United States, the psychological reorganization processes of their semantic space since their return to Japan were studied. A focus was on their management of perceived differences between the meaning systems of Japanese society and those of American society, particularly in the manner of presentation of self and relationships with groups of which they were a member. Three patterns were discerned: in some cases, conflicts between two cultural systems resulted in psychological strain, which forced returnees to reorganize their semantic space; in others, skillful manipulation of American symbols enhanced self-esteem, depending upon the context of a particular situation; and in still others, no normative pressure from Japanese system were reported. Possible factors differentiating these patterns were considered to be the relative dominance of the American meaning system vis-a-vis the Japanese one before return, returnees' personality, their age of return, and the degree of ready acceptance of differences by people in their immediate environment.
