Sadly, but not unexpectedly, Americans (mostly Obama haters) are going above and beyond to show their ignorance of other cultures.

I was so trying to stay away from this whole topic as it is a non-issue, but intelligence got the better of me and I finally had to say something!

The problem isn't simply that many Americans are ignorant of other cultures, it's that they throw arrogance in to boot by expecting all other countries and leaders to adhere to our ways while not responding in kind.

While I may not be able to do anything about the arrogance, I can at least try to educate those who are simply ignorant, as you would educate a child who is ignorant of dinner time etiquette.

And make no mistake, this is a matter of etiquette and protocol as much as it is a sign of respect....and on the list of responsibilities of a good world leader in the arena of foreign affairs, protocol and etiquette are high up on that list.

While I may not be a scholar on the Japanese people or their country, I do have first hand experience that I can draw on.

I was in martial arts for a number of years, and studied Japanese as my foreign language in high school.  The high school portion of my Japanese education focused on the reading, writing and grammar; my years in karate taught me the etiquette and proper discipline and respect.

The second picture on this post is an illustration of how we began and ended each class in our dojo.  In the kneeling position we would meditate for however long the person running that particular class felt was warranted, usually our Sensei.  At the conclusion of the meditation we would bow accordingly as the illustration depicts.

This showed respect not only for your teacher, but for your dojo as well.

Bowing in general has been a central facet of the Japanese culture for thousands of years and is used in many different ways.  While the Japanese do not typically expect foreigners to know, understand and adhere to this custom, to them it is a great sign of respect when a foreigner does.

In a quick 5 minute google search, I found two excerpts from books on the subject that anybody who took the time could read up on:

"Bowing is a bit complex - the degree of bowing depends on the formality of the situation and the relationship between the people. But foreigners are not expected to worry about this unless greeting the Emperor or on some such rare occasion."

"Generally speaking, the medium bow is used when greeting dignitaries, when meeting those who are significantly senior to you to whom you want to show a special degree of respect, and when expressing especially strong feelings of humility, sorrow or apology to anyone."

So Obama was not only meeting the Emperor, which is one of the rare occasions when a foreigner would be expected to bow, but he was also meeting a person who was significantly his senior and a dignitary.

There are many other things to consider in bowing etiquette, such as the depth of the bow, how long you hold the bow, whether and when to make eye contact or not, etc...

The proper greeting when meeting a person of the Emperor's stature in Japanese custom would be to perform the deeper bow and to hold it a bit longer than normal, also to not make eye contact during the bow.

In contrast, when you bow to your sparring partner in karate you keep your eye contact; this is a reflection of ancient times when before a fight or battle you showed your enemy respect by bowing, but didn't trust them enough to take your eyes off of them!

Also, I hear a lot of people who are upset that while Obama made the deep bow as was called for, the Emperor did not return the same type of bow; there is also a reason for this:

"Generally speaking, an inferior bows longer, more deeply and more frequently than a superior. A superior addressing an inferior will generally only nod the head slightly, while some superiors may not bow at all and an inferior will bend forward slightly from the waist."

Of course all the people who are so upset about Obama bowing in the first place will see this last excerpt and immediately latch on to the "inferior" part!

This is not an indication that the Emperor considers Obama less than him, or an inferior while he is Obama's superior; it's merely the correct response for somebody of his stature when being greeted by somebody of Obama's stature.

The custom of bowing in Japan has been around longer than the Christian version of marriage, and is far more complex than I've even made it seem with this post.

The fact that we don't understand all the little social behaviors in Japanese culture that dictate what type of bow to make in any given situation is not a reason to ignore and dismiss this custom simply because some Americans think we are better than everybody else!

I applaud President Obama for showing the proper respect in a foreign country!  I think people who are upset over this need to grow up and move on.

Just because you would've been rude, disrespectful and arrogant in this situation doesn't mean you would've been right about it.  I can only be grateful that we don't have a president that thinks the way these people do!

Thank you President Obama for showing some of the more juvenile-minded Americans what it truly means to be diplomatic and respectful of others.

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