The article examines the linguistic consciousness of representatives of Japanese culture. The authors use the semantic differential method. It is assumed that the stereotypes of everyday consciousness associated with images of representatives of different nationalities, one of the forms of expression have a semantic form. It can be said that semantic evaluations are the essence of evaluating emotions that have arisen in the process of contact with an object, or evaluating the same emotions in the development of social experience.

Keywords: semantic differential method, language consciousness, traditional value system, Japanese culture.

Psychosemantic research methods provide material for analyzing everyday consciousness, i.e. they reveal deep criteria for evaluating the objects under study. The semantic differential method is a combination of scaling procedures and the controlled association method. The use of the psychosemantic research method makes it possible to identify the respondents ' stable ideas about the objects under study. We are talking about such ideas that are not easily amenable to change, since they were formed mainly on the basis of well-established stereotypes and myths. Using this method, we examined the content of language consciousness that exists in modern Japanese culture.

The research method of semantic differential was proposed by one of the founders of psycholinguistics Ch. Osgood, 1959; 1960; 1962; Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957; Snider, Osgood, 1969; Osgood, May, & Miron, 1975; Osgood, Ware, & Morris, 1961). Since then, it has gained considerable popularity and is actively used in various fields of science (see [Himmelfarb, 1993; Petrenko and Mitina, 1998; Stepnova, 1992]).

The advantages of this research method are obvious: the use of metaphorical scales frees the respondent's subjective assessment from being limited by the actual properties of the object being evaluated; the researcher can set the range of quantitative assessments of objects himself and, depending on the content of the scales, orient the method both to highlight evaluative (connotative) features and more substantive (denotative) ones; scales make it possible to index not only the quality, but also the intensity of the value.

It is important that the semantic differential allows us to measure connotative meaning, which is known to be associated with emotions, personal meaning and experience, social attitudes, national and cultural stereotypes, and other emotionally rich forms of perception and attitude. Connotative meaning can also be defined as what is meant at the individual level.

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perceptions. Connotative meaning is traditionally contrasted with denotative meaning, which is understood as knowledge about the object of evaluation. Denotative meaning is cognitive, interpersonal, conscious, and objective. In turn, the connotative meaning is valuable, individual, emotional, and subjective.

The semantic differential has the following characteristics that explain its essence: a) closeness - evaluating the value of a feature on a given scale; b) orientation - directed associations about given objects evaluated by respondents on a number of scales; c) scaling - obtaining information about the expression of certain qualities in an object given by a certain set of scales; d) projection - a premise that implies that the evaluated object becomes important for the respondent not only because of its objective content, but also for reasons related to the respondent's personal attitude to the object under study; e) mass character - the possibility of using the method in mass surveys of subjects; f) standardization - providing respondents with the same instructions, evaluation objects, etc. scales. At the same time, it is important that in many cases the use of the semantic differential avoids the respondent's attempts to correlate ratings with their idea of a socially approved answer, since when evaluating certain objects using scales, the respondent does not have a clear idea of the final results of this procedure.

The purpose of our research was to study the specifics of factors that determine the degree of relevance of objects for respondents. The semantic differential method provides rich opportunities for analyzing various elements of meaning, but following the tasks set in this study, we preferred to limit ourselves to only considering the results of factor analysis. We emphasize that the scores received from the subjects were averaged, since this is a necessary condition for analyzing the worldview of a group of people. The mathematical apparatus used in the semantic differential method makes it possible to identify respondents ' attitudes to certain processes and phenomena by combining qualitative characteristics and quantitative estimates.

The method of conducting this experiment corresponds to the approach described in the work of A. A. Grigoriev and A. A. Nistratov, who distinguish the following stages of this study: a) selection of descriptor scales and assessment objects (various values, mainly ethical, were selected for the descriptor scales, and representatives of countries were selected for the assessment objects); b) carrying out the following tasks: and mathematical processing (factor analysis) of the answers received; c) interpretation of factor solutions (interpreted as semantic spaces), which consists in identifying the "semantic invariants" of scales [Grigoriev, Nistratov, 2008].

The procedure of our psychosemantic research conducted in Japan was as follows. Respondents were asked to rate a certain set of objects according to the specified qualities on a graduated scale. The protocols obtained in this way were collected into a group-wide data matrix, which was then processed by factor analysis (principal component method), followed by factor rotation to a simple structure (equamax method).

To study the perception of national stereotypes in the axiological space, a specialized semantic differential was developed. A set of basic human values was used as descriptor scales. The list of values was determined as a result of a preliminary experiment: security, religiosity, power, duty, prosperity, health, love, independence, education, equality, homeland, freedom, family, justice, creativity, work, pleasure, success, democracy, progress, wealth, conformity, efficiency, national patriotism, prosperity, practicality, science, justice, comfort, individual freedom.

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A group of respondents - native speakers of Japanese culture-were presented with objects and scales for their assessment. Each object had to be evaluated on all scales. The survey was conducted in 2006-2007. The questionnaires were presented in Japanese, and the number of men and women was the same. The survey was conducted in the Kansai region among respondents of different ages, from 18 to 74 years.

Respondents were asked to fill out a questionnaire, which is a table in which a list of the above 30 values was placed vertically on the left, and representatives of a number of countries or regions were listed horizontally on the top. The questionnaire included an Australian, an American, an Englishman, an Arab, an Argentine, an African, a Brazilian, a Greek, a Jew, an Indian, an Italian, a Chinese, a German, a Pole, a Russian, a North Korean, a Frenchman, a Swede, a South Korean, and a Japanese. For our research, it doesn't matter which country representatives were evaluated by the respondents. When respondents rated representatives of the respective countries on a six-point system (they were required to put in the cells of the table estimates of how much, in their opinion, each value is significant for representatives of a certain country or region on a rating scale from 0 to 5, where 0 meant no significance of the corresponding value, and 5-maximum significance), they unconsciously grouped We have integrated our values into factors that are important to them. We will focus on the interpretation of the data obtained in this way.

As a result of the conducted factor analysis, five factors were identified. Factors are listed in descending order of contribution to the overall variance: 1) material prosperity; 2) freedom, democracy, conformity; 3) civic values; 4) tradition; 5) healthy hedonism.

Let's look at these factors in detail.

The first factor contains values (wealth, progress, success, prosperity, science, prosperity, education, power) that reflect the attributes of material prosperity. In the understanding of modern Japanese, it cannot be achieved without proper education and scientific progress. The government is seen as a regulator that guarantees the existence of these values, which have become the main tool for achieving prosperity due to the scarcity of natural resources in Japan. There is an opinion that the Japanese are not self-centered. We find it absolutely fair. The Japanese people are focused primarily on the prosperity of society as a whole. At the same time, the geographical conditions of existence of the Japanese people predetermined their careful attitude to nature. As D. G. Glaveva aptly noted, a person belonging to traditional Japanese culture tends to harmonize relations with nature and space, and not to conquer them. "Nature is the basis on which the Japanese have woven the fabric of their culture. In the change of seasons, in various natural phenomena, they see a peculiar reflection of human life and organically include them in their everyday customs, spiritual and aesthetic views" [Glaveva, 2003, p.9].

It can be said that the values that made up this factor unite all layers of Japanese society. Prosperity is relevant for the middle class, wealth is relevant for the elite and the nation as a whole, progress implies the overall progressive development of the country, which affects all classes of society, and success is understood as the success of the social structure that has developed in modern Japan. All this demonstrates the pronounced collectivism and corporatism that permeates Japanese culture. These qualities are characteristic of the Japanese for a long time, as evidenced by the Japanese proverb "Those who are close in spirit are drawn to each other." Collectivism is undoubtedly an extremely profitable model of social development in the context of globalization. However, within the framework of collectivism, the personal factor is leveled, and it is difficult for individual representatives of a collectivist society to fully express their emotions and intentions. The ethic characteristic of Japanese language consciousness is a vivid example of this. The Japanese often have to restrain themselves, perhaps to the detriment of their own interests,

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but the society benefits from this, since the established social norms are observed. The language clichés that have become "if you start a fight, you lose" or "if you get angry, move away" and similar instructions have been known to Japanese people since childhood. They reflect national behavioral attitudes and foster restraint and a tendency to compromise in people [Gurevich, 2005, p. 99]. The numerous ethical restrictions imposed on every Japanese person by strict social norms imply restraint of feelings, as evidenced by the proverb "And in intimacy you need a certain restraint."

Interestingly, a similar study conducted in Russia among Russian respondents recorded the dominance of individualism in modern Russian culture. Some researchers traditionally call Russian culture collectivist, but at the latest, since the early 1990s, this trait has become less and less characteristic of it. At the same time, it is important to take into account that in the context of globalization, collectivist cultures have obvious competitive advantages over individualistic ones (for more information, see [Palkin, 2010; Palkin, 2011]).

The second factor (individual freedom, freedom, democracy, creativity, independence, equality, comfort, conformity) indicates the Japanese desire for internal freedom. As D. G. Glaveva emphasizes, the external is necessary for the Japanese way of world perception, while the internal is true. Only the inner world seems stable and reliable to the Japanese. Hence the increased attention to the" inner"," innermost " nature of a person [Glaveva, 2003, p. 8]. Here it is appropriate to recall the honne - tatemae dichotomy ("true intentions" - "principles of behavior in society"), which is relevant for Japanese studies. In their daily lives, Japanese people are subject to numerous restrictions imposed on them by all sorts of rules and conventions developed in society. You can think what you want, but you should behave appropriately.

However, the ideas of equality and freedom are not alien to modern Japanese. Here it is obvious that the growing Westernization, and above all the Americanization of Japanese society, has a significant impact on Japanese culture. After the defeat in World War II, the Japanese began to adopt Western values in their American version. However, if this process is very active in the sphere of consumption, then the traditional value system is being eroded relatively slowly. Nevertheless, over the past few decades, there has been a gradual decline in the prestige of traditional views based on the idea of the primary importance of public institutions. The ideas of individualism and consumer society are gradually being introduced into the public consciousness [Gurevich, 2005, p. 77]. For this reason, values such as "democracy" and "conformity"fall into the same category.

Generally inclined to conformism, the Japanese readily adopt Western behavioral patterns and adopt Western values. The presence of the value "creativity" here shows that the Japanese do not blindly copy Western models, but rework them in accordance with their cultural traditions. The Japanese are historically famous for skilfully adopting progressive foreign experience and effectively transferring it to their own soil. Back in the sixth century. The Japanese were quite successful in adapting the Chinese system of administrative government, Chinese Buddhism, and Chinese writing to their own needs. At that time, globalization was out of the question, so the Japanese could only use the achievements of neighboring countries. But in the twentieth century, the situation changed radically. Under the influence of European countries, as well as - first of all-the United States, the Japanese rebuilt their political, economic and educational systems, resulting in rapid economic growth.

We do not believe that the current social structure in Japan is close to ideal, but the Japanese have managed to take advantage of the developed countries

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the best, while preserving the national identity. The process of transition to Western standards could not but lead to an increase in the importance of individualistic sentiments. However, it is clear that collectivism is still dominant in Japanese culture.

As for the third factor (duty, justice, efficiency, work, fairness, safety, practicality), work remains the foundation of the civic values of Japanese people, who are rightly called workaholics. The phenomenon described as "death from excessive work" has become so widespread in Japan that there is a special token for it. Staying at work at the end of an official working day is quite common for a Japanese person. The rule of good taste is to recycle for several hours every day. Whether this work will be paid for or not is a secondary question. Since everyone stays after work, even if one of the employees has all the work done, they usually also stay and imitate the work done, so as not to stand out from the general background. Of course, the main purpose of such procedures is to maintain the prestige and prosperity of the company. It is for the sake of the success of the common cause that the Japanese are willing to stay up late at work, be content with two weeks of vacation a year and work hard. Of course, we can not say that all Japanese people without exception behave in this way, but the average Japanese is used to working in this mode. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the prosperity of a company can ensure the personal prosperity of each of its employees. V. A. Pronnikov and I. D. Ladanov emphasize that the Japanese are capable of making great sacrifices to achieve their goals. Often, in order to please the group, they give up personal benefits and suffer adversity. "The Japanese craving for group interaction is extremely strong. Japanese businesses benefit greatly from all this." [Pronnikov and Ladanov, 1996, p. 287]. Thus, labor can be considered a key component of the factor under consideration.

It should also be noted here that factor analysis showed some correlation between material prosperity and civic values, which once again emphasizes the role of labor in Japanese culture. Civic values in modern Japan are ensured by a relatively fair redistribution of income and an extensive system of social guarantees. Public justice and security, as well as decent remuneration for work (although it may seem insufficient to some, but they really pay a lot in Japan), are ensured by the reliable functioning of the judicial system. All civic values are united in the Japanese worldview by a sense of duty that has developed over many centuries: vassal subordination has developed into corporate subordination.

The fourth factor (homeland, national patriotism, religiosity) emphasizes the high level of patriotism of the Japanese, which is due to both the collectivism noted above and the historical development of the country. The imperial dynasty of Japan is the oldest in the world. In all ages, the Japanese Emperor has been an object of veneration and worship. Japanese historical chronicles tell about the divine origin of the Japanese emperors. The descendants of this legendary emperor thus also have a divine origin. Of course, in modern Japan, these views are no longer so relevant. In the name of the emperor, they no longer go to death, as it was during the Second World War. However, the Japanese still have the warmest feelings for their emperors. It can be said that the Japanese nation rallies around the imperial person, who is the symbol of the Land of the Rising Sun. According to A. N. Meshcheryakov, " the structure of Japanese power for at least the last fifteen hundred years was such that the real administrative powers were almost always held not by the emperor himself, but by another person or institution," which made the emperor fundamentally invulnerable to any criticism [Meshcheryakov, 2007, p.23].

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In addition, several centuries of "closed country" policies (when contact with foreigners was kept to a minimum) led to the idea of the uniqueness of the Japanese nation. This idea is still popular not only among ordinary people, but also in scientific and political circles. Among the Japanese humanities, there is even such a thing as nihonjinron, i.e. "the doctrine of the Japanese". V. M. Alpatov believes that Japanese nationalist ideology was finally formed in the Meiji era (XIX century), when the problem of mastering Western values and realizing one's own was acute. Later, during the era of Japanese militarism and Japan's only colonial expansion, nationalist ideology became a state ideology. After the war, nationalist ideas faded into the shadows, although, of course, they did not disappear, and since the 1960s they began to express themselves again, although not in the same form as before 1945 [Alpatov, 2008, p. 44].

The results of our experiment show that the level of patriotism among the Japanese is still high. At the same time, not being deeply religious people, modern Japanese observe numerous religious rituals prescribed by Shinto and Buddhism. "The absence of strict religious dogmas allowed Buddhism to take root painlessly on Japanese soil, merging with the Shinto beliefs of the Japanese... A peculiar fusion of Shintoism and Buddhism is indicated, for example, by the fact that some Shinto gods began to be depicted in the guise of Buddhist monks... Just as naturally, many Confucian concepts that came after Buddhism were interpreted in a Shinto way" [Gurevich, 2005, p. 34], which as moral and ethical norms became the most important element of the nation's education. At the same time, both Buddhism and Confucianism in Japan best assimilated what organically fit into the existing foundations and did not require their cardinal breaking and denial.

Visiting temples is more like a tribute to tradition, but traditions in Japan are honored and maintained. The proverb also tells about the attitude of the Japanese to faith:"If there was faith, there would be gods." This proverb clearly demonstrates the religious tolerance inherent in the Japanese. For them, it is not so important which god to worship, but they clearly know what to worship, because this is what their ancestors did. It is characteristic that the cult of ancestors who patronize the living developed in Japan precisely because of the religious system of Shintoism, which still has a significant impact on the ethical views of the Japanese. D. G. Glaveva also notes that the Japanese show tolerance not only in relation to religious ideas, but also in the cultural and everyday spheres. However, this passivity, according to the researcher, is compensated by significant activity in the field of purposeful creation of an internal information culture [Glaveva, 2003, p. 14]. The conclusion of V. V. Ovchinnikov is absolutely true, who, calling the Japanese a people of little religion, emphasizes that religion is largely replaced by aesthetics, that is, the worship of beauty [Ovchinnikov, 1971, p. 27].

The fifth factor (love, family, health, pleasure) is united by the value of "family". Family implies the presence of love, if not between spouses, then between parents and children. The family is interested in ensuring that all its members are healthy, and mutual understanding is maintained within the family. The combination of these factors can provide the kind of pleasure from life that the average Japanese person aspires to. V. A. Pronnikov and I. D. Ladanov emphasize the solidarity characteristic of relationships in a Japanese family. First of all, this is expressed in the veneration of parents. Following the ideas of Shintoism, the Japanese perceive the family as the unity of all the ancestors of the distant past and all the descendants of the distant future. This explains the importance of the concept of debt, which implies certain obligations to both one's ancestors and descendants [Pronnikov and Ladanov, 1996, pp. 120-121].

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The modern Japanese family is going through hard times. Japanese people who live on a "knurled track" first strive to make a career, and only then build a family. In addition, the birth rate in Japanese families is quite low, which is typical for most countries with developed urbanization. As a result, it became possible to describe the demographic situation in Japan in the form of an inverted trapezoid: younger children are less than older children; older children are less than young people; young people are less than middle-aged people, and so on. Life expectancy, one of the highest in the world - an obvious achievement of Japanese culture and lifestyle - creates significant economic difficulties, as new generations have to pay more and more to budget funds due to the fact that the number of pensioners is growing faster than the number of working-age population.

Despite all the existing difficulties, the Japanese consider the creation of a family to be an extremely important task. It is also a kind of tribute to tradition. Meanwhile, despite some recently passed laws to encourage the birth rate through financial support, a large family is a rarity in Japan. Of course, the Japanese family retains patriarchal traditions, even if not as strict as before. R. Benedict's observation about the inconsistency in the behavior of Japanese men, which, as she believes, is due to the peculiarities of upbringing, has not lost its relevance. Up to about seven years of age, the Japanese allow their children almost everything. In the words of R. Benedict, Japanese children are like "little gods in their own little world", all the pleasures seem possible to them. As they become more socialized, these same children quickly experience the many limitations that are ingrained in Japanese society. R. Benedikt explains the fact that Japanese men, on the one hand, are able to indulge in pleasure and show amazing frivolity, and on the other hand, they are able to take on the most difficult responsibilities and persevere in fulfilling them [Benedikt, 2004, p.204]. Japanese people view love and family as significant cultural elements rather than values in themselves.

The above analysis using the semantic differential method leads to the following conclusions regarding the content of Japanese language consciousness: a) the predominance of collectivism in Japanese culture; b) the tendency of Japanese people to pragmatism; c) the order of relations inherent in Japanese culture; d) the significant influence of Shintoism and Buddhism on Japanese ethics, despite the predominantly secular nature of Japanese culture; e a) the absolute value of nature in the minds of Japanese people; g) the high degree of Japanese dependence on public opinion; h) the high significance of ethical restrictions in Japanese society; i) the recognition of the importance of the family against the background of objective difficulties in creating it; j) the impact of globalization, first of all, the gradual (but not decisive) rooting of Western values the world.

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