Examination of the self-expansion model in Japanese women-Caucasian men romantic relationships

Abstract

A growing number of Japanese women devote both personal and professional investment in a variety of so-called "realm of foreign" endeavors, which include study abroad, travel abroad, or work in foreign affiliated firms (Kelsky, 2001a). The Ministry of Justice in Japan reported that Japanese women who departed Japan to overseas in 2004 increased 3.8% more than Japanese men from the previous year. According to Qno and Piper (2004), women comprise over half of all Japanese students abroad now - an increase from only one-quarter of the total in 1959. The most popular destination is the United States, which 30 percent of all Japanese students call "home" during their studies (Ono & Piper, 2004). Furthermore, the statistics show that it is natural that one would witness mixed-race romances between Japanese women and foreign men, especially Americans. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan reported that of all 8,158 Japanese women who married non-Japanese, 1,529 women tied the knot with Americans which account for 19% of the total in 2003 - 434 increase from 1990. Nevertheless, while frequent contact certainly explains the incremental pairings of Japanese women and American men, many claim to find some idiosyncrasy in terms of the motivational aspects of the pairing; that is, Japanese women's particular mate selection tendency based on various motives of attraction to Western men. This paper takes a different angle. First, this study will specifically focus on Japanese women's romantic involvement with Caucasian men from the perspective of interpersonal and intercultural relationship research. It will specifically focus on a fundamental human motivation, that is a self-expansion motivation; the desire for enhanced potential efficacy - greater material, social, and informational resources (Aron & Aron 1996b). Such self-expansion leads both to the greater ability to achieve whatever else one desires (i.e., both to survival and to specific rewards) as well as to an enhanced sense of efficacy (Aron & Aron, 1996b).