Why do the Japanese bow?

Everyone's seen it...the Japanese bow. It is irreplaceable in the Japanese culture of respect, used in a variety of situations (thank you, nice to meet you, etc.) and sometimes awkward (when will it stop?). But why do they do it? It turns out that the Japanese bow has as fascinating a history as the American handshake.

Essentially what a person is saying when greeting another in either culture is, "I do not have a weapon". Naturally, since the weapons carried in western and Japanese cultures are different, the gestures evolved in different ways. An American handshake shows the other person that you do not have a gun, or at least are not gripping it at that moment (typically carried in a holster at the hips). Similarly, a Japanese bow shows the other party that you do not have a sword (typically carried on the back).

The degree of bowing matches the situation and the required level of humility. The greatest example of this is the very deep "gomennasai" (meaning "I'm sorry") bow given by the Toyota executives after the acceleration debacle a few years ago. A person would never bow at this deep of an angle to simply say "nice to meet you". Oh yes, and you had better look at the floor unless you want to imply that you have a need to keep an eye on the person with whom you're interacting.

We need a protractor to say "hello"?

"We screwed up big time."

Being transplanted to another country goes a long way in highlighting one's own customs that are so common and natural that we never even think about them. For example, Americans point to their chests when referencing themselves, whereas the Japanese point to their noses. Similarly and also converse to the bow, we tend to do an upward tilt of the chin ("'sup") when acknowledging another person. If you think you don't do this, try to keep your head down or bow when greeting someone and you'll see how natural our own customs become. Or try not pointing to your chest when talking about yourself. It's tricky :-)!

Now back to the awkwardness of the bowing mentioned above. Imagine meeting someone with a handshake that will not stop. Or when it does, the other person reaches for your hand again...and again, and again. Such is the case for bowing in Japan, and honestly we haven't figured it out yet. The bowing can go on for quite a while and we really don't know when to stop. We've resorted to bowing and backing away slowly ("ok bye bye") but hopefully one of these days we'll get the hang of it :-).