Interpersonal Style and Japanese American Organizational Involvement

This paper reports on an initial effort to develop survey items that measure Japanese American interpersonal style. Based upon the theoretical work of Miyamoto. Fugita, and Kashima (2002) it was hypothesized that Japanese American interpersonal style is an important factor in their forming large numbers of voluntary organizations both historically and contemporarily. A survey was administered to 344 Japanese Americans living in the Seattle, WA and San Jose, CA areas. An initial pool of 16 items yielded a 10-item measure with three subscales that was related to involvement in Japanese American organizations and other indicators of ethnic community participation.