International Students` Trust, Liking Of Japanese Students and Intercultural Contact with Japanese People

Previous research suggests that people with higher level of generalized trust are more likely to cooperate with strangers and tend to form new social relationships to adapt better in a new environment. This study aims at investigating whether international students (ISs)’ generalized trust of others would be benefit for their intercultural contact with Japanese people or not, along with other factors such as age, gender, history of stay in Japan, history of learning the Japanese language, Japanese and English language proficiency, and their level of liking of general Japanese students, and so on. The author conducted a questionnaire survey targeting ISs enrolled at several universities which locates in the Kanto Region in Japan. As a result, 210 submitted their responses, among whom 206 were analyzed in this study. Based on the multiple regress analysis, it was found that ISs’ liking of general Japanese students (β=.30, p<.05) and their generalized trust of others (β=.31, p<.01) had significant effects on their intercultural contacts with Japanese people. However, no effects for their history of learning the Japanese language, history of stay in Japan, or language proficiency were detected. Findings of this study indicate that improving ISs’ generalized trust of others would be one of the effective way to encourage their intercultural communication with Japanese people.