Eye Contact? Smile?

By Kazuki Nishiyama

When you pass others whom you’ve never met, do you look at them or avoid eye contact? Since I came here, I have wondered why, when people in the U.S pass each other, they are sometimes making eye contact and smiling at each other though they are strangers for both of them. Of course, making eye contact and smiling shows their friendliness and is good habit.

I am now accustomed to smiling when a stranger smiles at me here in the U.S. Moreover, I sometimes see strangers say "Hi" to each other.

However, when I imagine that if I were in Japan and made eye contact and smiled at a stranger, I would be considered completely abnormal, or people would make fun of me. People don’t see others, don’t care about others and look as if they seem to deny others’ existence. In short, we are not allowed to make eye contact with a stranger even for one second.