“Kuuki wo yomu” Japanese culture literally interpreted as “read air”

Upload: 11 January 2019, Last update: 17 October 2020

In Japanese, there’s a unique phrase “kuuki wo yomu” that literally can be translated as “read the air”. It’s a custom long existing in the society and unique aspect of it.

After Japan started the modernization to catch up with the industrial revolution in the West, they took the measure of homogenization in factories or education which then became successful and because of this, Japan could develop as the current Japan. In the meantime, this have established the tradition of obedience. So obedience is related to the custom of Kuuki wo yomu and shared among most of Japanese. This is the beginning of reading-air culture in Japan.

As Japanese tend to be more conservative, they always pay attention to others almost all moments of the time when they are with people including friends, parents, and colleagues.

In those time, they “read air”. Simply this means behaving to be suited to the scene. It would be easier to explain this notion by illustrating examples of not reading air.

For example, in a class at school, a student raise his/her hand and mentions opinions a little bit far from the topic discussed then. Some students might feel or say he/she should read the air. Another is that conversation among friends, one started to talk another topic suddenly and disturbing the atmosphere means he/she doesn’t read the air.

This “reading air” culture is fitting oneself into a scene or to follow majority. However, it’s not necessarily good to read air, there are a lot of cases people need to mention their opinions even though it may disturb the atmosphere.