Not that other countries don't rely on this as well, but the lie is such a big part of Japanese culture that without it I'm pretty sure Japan would simply collapse. There are so many examples I could use but that would take a book series.
Japanese people lie. This is the simple truth. The example I've had the most experience with is Japanese people telling you that you should hang out together. A lot of the time what they're really saying is "I don't want to hang out with you, but I want you to think I'm a good person and I want us both to be comfortable RIGHT NOW (big key words), so I'll just lie and say "yes!" to you about hanging out." Then, you invite that person to hang out but you just get repeated excuses as to why they can't, along with the slightly hopeful, yet still useless "next time!" Hint: They don't really mean "next time."
When they don't have to see you face to face, anything goes. Gossip flies faster than sound and you can be flat out refused for things that were previously agreed upon. A common complaint of Western businesses that try to do business with Japanese companies is that Japanese businesses will say that they will buy their products (or engage in business with the Westerners) while face to face, but later on won't fulfill on their verbal agreement. This is to appear nice, but it's hard to see where essentially promising someone to do something, then negging on it later (and often messing up plans) is nice.
As much as the lie is an integral part of Japanese culture, Japanese people are actually pretty bad at the whole thing. I believe this is on purpose. I think that Japanese people give lies that are bad enough that people know they're lying, but are plausible enough that others can't really call them out on it. It's like they're saying "I don't want to do (insert action here), but I also don't want to say that outright, so hopefully with this sorry excuse of a lie, you'll get that hint." The worst lie I ever received is when I asked a girl to hang out. She essentially told me no by telling me she wasn't sure, so I asked her why she wasn't sure, and she replied with "because I don't know what will happen!" I thought maybe she didn't want to hang out with foreigners (she did that stuff to another foreigner here), but just a month ago she shipped herself off to Canada for a 1 year study abroad... I did get the hint though, I never contacted her again after that.
I've gotten used to the incessant lying here after 3 years and have started doing it myself. Wonder how long it'll take me to turn that around after I go back home. I do think that this is one of the reasons why Japanese people are not as happy as they could be. True, honest and unhindered communication isn't valued here. In fact, it's often punished.
嘘【うそ】 (uso) lie
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