A Multifaceted View of the Concept of Amae: Reconsidering the Indigenous Japanese Concept of Relatedness

The indigenous Japanese concept of amae has provoked interest from scholars across disciplines. Many have provided their own version of defining amae without much attempt to synthesize it into a demonstrative definition. Non-Japanese scholars have attempted to understand the concept through their own interpretations, which has often led to confusions and erroneous conclusions. The present paper analyzes the concept of amae, focusing on its everyday use with illustrative evidence to provide contextual meanings of varied amae phenomena. A multifaceted view to approach amae is introduced. The new approach proposes to consider amae in different contexts and in three developmental phases, with evidence to support that amae is, in fact, different in each category. Future amae research is discussed.