The 80/20 Rule on American-Japanese friendships/relationships

Ok y'all,

Here is my explanation on the 80/20 Rule. Feel free to post your comments.

You know how we say "break the ice"? People here can be cold like ice but underneath it all, they are pretty good people. Well its really true over here because if you try to get to know japanese people thats exactly what you're doing-breaking the ice literally. There is also an 80/20 rule with American-Japanese friendships/relationships. Basically what it means is that most americans will give up 80% of themselves in a friendship while the japanese will give up only 20%. What I mean by that is that when you meet someone, like me and any other american, its easy for us to communicate and really go deep with our experiences and get to know a lot about each other.
But with the japanese people, what you find out about them will only be the surface. For example, the japanese person will talk about just their professions, how many people are in their family, maybe the foods they like, the music they listen too but its limited to stuff like that. Finding out their emotions or their opinions on things and such are a bit complicated and its something that they don't discuss openly with their foreign counterparts, why they are the way they are, how do they feel when xyz happens to them, dreams, etc. You're lucky if you can get deep with them. Now that rule may apply to all foreigners and japanese but I'm not 100% sure but I know thats the case with many American friends i have surveyed over the past couple of years.