Cultural Intelligence of Russians in Japan: The Role of Intercultural Contacts, Acculturation Strategies and Permeability of Social Boundaries

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FEDERAL-STATE AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL

INSTITUTION OF TERTIARY EDUCATION

«NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS»

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

Master's Program «Applied Social Psychology»

Cultural Intelligence of Russians in Japan: The Role of Intercultural Contacts, Acculturation Strategies and Permeability of Social Boundaries

Master's Thesis

Galliamova, Adeliia



Abstract

cultural intelligence japan

This research is dedicated to the cultural intelligence of Russian people in Japan. Special attention was paid to its relationship with intensity of friends' contacts, acculturation expectations and boundary permeability. To check our hypotheses, we conducted a quantitative study, consisting of four questionnaires - Acculturation expectations from Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies (MIRIPS), Friendship Intensity, Boundary Permeability and Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS). We managed to gather the answers of 101 Russian people residing in Japan in order to conduct our current research. It was found that there are two relatively independent paths to higher levels of cultural intelligence. First, Russians who choose an integration strategy are more interculturally competent. Secondly, Russians who communicate intensively with the Japanese turn out to be more interculturally competent, while the choice in favor of an assimilation strategy, due to the intensity of contacts, is not important. Whereas, we also found that surprisingly the intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese was positively related only to the assimilation strategy and not related to other strategies (even the integration one), which again demonstrates the unique socio-cultural characteristics of Japan and the difficulties of adaptation to it.

This study may provide a wide source of information for further discussion and making personal recommendations to Russians about the aspects that should receive more attention and how to plan further development in the cross-cultural context of Japan.

Keywords: Acculturation strategies, Cultural Intelligence, Friendship Intensity, Boundary Permeability, Russians, Japan.



Introduction

Acculturation and migration issues are of great importance for the modern research of global studies. Japan, in this sense, seems to be "unexplored" as migrants to Japan are relatively understudied compared with migrants in other high-income countries (Miller, Tomita, Ong, et al.,2019). Now Japan is believed that as a direction of migration it is only developing. Interest to it appears among the Russian citizens too. However, due to the complexity of the context and the characteristics of culture and history, the issue of adaptation and its factors are particularly acute. An important indicator, and even an adaptation mechanism, is the formation of intercultural competence, also called cultural intelligence. As a rule, cultural learning and intercultural communication are among the predictors of cultural intelligence (Ng, Van Dyne, Ang, 2012). However, it seems important to us to consider cultural intelligence not in isolation, but in the context of acculturation. The factors of cultural intelligence due to acculturation in Japan are the subject of this study.

Previous studies (Miller, Tomita, Ong, et al., 2019) show that social and support networks proved to be reliable facilitators of mental well-being in international migrant samples of Japan. Several examples of such support might include “work or daily life, living with family versus living alone, connecting with friends or maintaining connections with the migrant community”. Some other factors that played the facilitation roles were job satisfaction, “strong cultural identity, cultural adaptability, longer stay in Japan, coping skills, age under 30 years and Japanese fluency”.

The same study found also the most common challenges for the mental well-being which are difficulties of communicating in Japanese (stress from the language barrier appeared both in daily life routines and situations as visiting medical and municipal institutions). The lack of the language proficiency as the main problem of the foreigners in Japan which leads to accommodation, job, social and health-care issues was also described by Mahmood (1994) in terms of being perceived as acculturative stress. At the same time, previous studies show that this stress can be felt less in case of integration or assimilation strategies, probably because they include the adoption to the host culture (Scottham, Dias, 2010).

Other mentioned barriers were connected to the lack of support and lack of social networks (this may happen due to isolation or living alone). `Being female' also was mentioned as a source of stress. Less common, but still significant difficulties included acculturation process, child-rearing, finances, as well as “occupational stress and discrimination along with age over 30 years and living in Japan for more than 1 year” (Miller, Tomita, Ong, et al., 2019).

Some studies found that development of International students' social support networks may decrease the level of maladaptation for foreign students in Japan (Ye, 2017). Such networks would work especially well if they consist of more people that speak different languages, particularly Japanese native speakers. So, it seems that facilitating the communication with locals can be helpful to survive in Japan in terms of mental well-being.

Surprisingly, the cultural similarities and length of stay in Japan do not necessarily contribute to adaptation (Tanaka, Tomoko, et al., 1994). Perhaps this happens due to the socio-cultural characteristics of Japan, and particularly to the permeability of social borders.

Even though a few researches were done studying independently the relations between Cultural Intelligence and Friendship Intensity, Cultural Intelligence and Acculturation Strategies, Cultural Intelligence and Boundary Permeability, these three concepts have not been addressed altogether in one study. Although the relationship between Cultural Intelligence and other mentioned aspects of migrant experience has been studied, but it was done with little regard to the context.

Research question: How are Cultural Intelligence, Acculturation Strategies, Friendship Intensity and Boundary Permeability related to each other?

The present study aims to examine the relationship among Cultural Intelligence, Acculturation Strategies, Friendship Intensity and Boundary Permeability of Russian people in Japan.

This work is going to develop the knowledge about cultural intelligence with theoretical additions of a new group and context. The results of this study may provide the wide base for personal recommendations to Russians about the aspects that should receive more attention and how to plan further development in the cross-cultural context of Japan.



Chapter 1: How Cultural Intelligence is related to Friendship Intensity and Boundary Permeability: the case of Russian people with different acculturation strategies in Japan

1.1 What is cultural intelligence and why it is important in intercultural interactions

Our modern globalized world gives us a lot of challenges that require to be adaptive for the quick changes, including social ones. Past studies showed that Cross-Cultural Competence (which is synonymic to Intercultural Competence, Cultural Sensitivity, Cultural Intelligence) might be helpful in managing these difficulties as it reflects the ability to live, work and relax in the context of intercultural and cross-cultural differences that exist in everyday life (Matsumoto, 2003).

This study examines the component model of Cultural Intelligence, one of the best known and most commonly used, that managed to gather the majority of scholars' attention and showed good results in the cross-cultural research.

Concept of cultural intelligence (CQ) was proposed by Earley & Ang in 2003, which soon gathered the attention of scientific world as it explained a “person's capability to function effectively in culturally diverse contexts” (Ang & Van Dyne, 2008; Earley & Ang, 2003) as a part of the broader human intelligence.

In this model (Earley & Ang, 2003) different intercultural competencies were identified, namely:

Meta-cognitive cultural intelligence, which reflects an individual's mental capability to acquire and understand cultural knowledge;

Cognitive cultural intelligence, which shows an individual's knowledge about cultures and cultural differences;

Motivational cultural intelligence, which indicates an individual's capability to direct and sustain effort toward functioning in intercultural situations; and

Behavioral cultural intelligence, which reflects an individual's capability for behavioral flexibility in cross-cultural interactions.

The authors emphasized that fact that CQ is a complex notion which requires all the components to be active. Thus, cultural intelligence demonstrates the interaction of these elements. It means that if a person has low results in one of these competencies, he would be defined to have low general CQ (Earley, Ang, 2003).

Moreover, it is necessary to mention that CQ reflects the capability to function not in the specific culture, but universally, meaning that it is “a culture-free construct that transcends cultural boundaries” (Ng, Van Dyne, Ang, 2012). And as CQ is a capability, it may be dynamic and develop over time.

Though, plenty of research was done in order to explore the predictors and outcomes of Cultural Intelligence (main results of prior studies can be seen in the pic.1 below), the necessity of further research of CQ connections to various migration related aspects remains clear, that is why this work studies the interaction with such constructs as Acculturation strategies, Friendship Intensity and Boundary Permeability which will be disclosed onwards.



Pic 1. Summary of Cultural Intelligence research findings (retrieved from Ng, Van Dyne, Ang, 2012).

1.2 What is Acculturation

Globalization is gaining momentum that is why the issues of acculturation are also very acute. Usually, the rise of the interest to acculturation strategies was connected to big migration waves as it happened with Central Asian refugees in countries of the European Union, where more cases of social movements are taking place.

Successful acculturation strategies along with their predictors and outcomes are being a focus of the research of many scholars all around the world (Yu, Wang, 2011; Kumi-Yeboah, Brobbey, Smith, 2019). For the first time, the term acculturation was mentioned in works of American naturalist, John Wesley Powell, in 1880 (Rudmin, 2003), when he described the changes which were occurring to Native American languages after Europeans entered their land. Modern understanding of acculturation has changed significantly since then and has become more structured, which we owe to the researcher John W. Berry (1997), who proposed a 4-fold model for acculturation strategies, including separation, marginalization, assimilation and integration. In the recent scenario, it has widely been observed that culture changes happening with migrants on psychological process when they live and mingle with host community (Berry, 1997).

Usually, among these 4 strategies, the integration one is considered to be the most adaptive, both psychologically and socioculturally (Berry, 2007), as it allows to keep the continuity of the self even in communication with representatives of other cultures.

Plenty of research was done to discover the predictors for choosing better acculturation strategy (Meng, Zhu & Cao, 2017), which revealed that there are several features prior to acculturation that actually can help to succeed, for example, “closeness between cultures, cultural plurality in the origin culture, level of education, perception of the origin culture or their cultural identity, language, age and gender” (Yu, Wang, 2011).

Thus, we can see that from the very beginning the chances for better acculturation are very different and are determined by the combination of these characteristics, however, it would be so, if the 4-fold model were stable one. On the contrary, the model says that the choice of the strategy is a dynamic process, which allows to try and experience the benefits and limitations of each decision, which still broadens the personal know-how.

Taking this to account, many scholars started to search what are the factors that people can work on may improve the level of cultural intelligence and found that advanced acculturation strategies and friendship with locals (that might increase the social inclusion) can play this supportive role.

We expected that according to Contact Hypothesis the high level of interaction with local people (Japanese) will lead to better inclusion to the host society and will subjectively be felt better. As the measurement for this interaction we chose the scale for Friendship Intensity as it allows to see what is the number of close people the person has among (a) Russians, (b) Japanese, (c) other nationalities, and the frequency of communication with each of them. These parameters provide an opportunity to compare the results inside each of these three formed groups and also to track what strategy the person chose.

How is Cultural Intelligence related to Acculturation?

As it was shown in this work before, previous research found that Cultural Intelligence has connections to many different constructs. Recent studies extended the knowledge about CQ finding connections with, for example, self-efficacy (Camargo, Ana, et al., 2019), cultural values and negotiation styles (Caputo, Andrea, et al., 2019), and many others, however in this work, we want to scrutinize its link with Acculturation strategies.

The research combining acculturation and CQ investigated that preference for integration strategy may be seen as a sign of high intercultural competence (Spitzberg & Changnon, 2009). It advocates that acculturation and cultural intelligence have a strong connection to each other.

A systematic review of 30 articles (Khan, Hasan, 2016) showed that Acculturation experience, Cultural intelligence and Social support can work together and play a predictive role for the acculturative stress.

Other attempts to connect cultural intelligence with acculturation strategies (Arends-Toth & van de Vijver, 2006) found that Socio-cultural competence (which is synonymic to cultural intelligence, and is expressed in the “interaction with co-nationals, maintenance of “ethnic” skills and behaviors, interaction with hosts, acquisition of skills and behaviors of the majority culture, academic and job performances”) is included to the Acculturation outcomes. It means that level of Cultural intelligence depends on the type of acculturation strategy that people choose when they are exposed to a second culture. So that integration and assimilation strategies were proved to be the predictor for the high-level of cultural intelligence.

Similar ideas were found in the Meng, Zhu & Cao study (2017) where integrated and assimilated Chinese students living abroad obtained greater global competence development which can be seen in improved knowledge, skills and attitudes (and this is consonant with the Earley&Ang CQ model that includes metacognitive, cognitive, behavioral and motivational dimensions, accordingly).

Some findings show that some competencies can have a higher priority, for example, being included into new culture requires high levels of cultural intelligence, especially affective and behavioral competencies (Ngwira et al, 2015).

The most advantageous for adaptation is the integration strategy (Berry, 1997). A number of factors are associated with the choice of this particular strategy, but if we consider acculturation in the context of the adaptive growth of competencies, it must be said that the choice of integration strategy can be considered as a sign of high intercultural competence, or at least related to it.

At the same time, high cultural intelligence is also associated with the fact that a person is ready to choose more inclusive acculturation strategies. When a person arrives in a new culture, (s)he is facing with a conflict of values, norms, cultures, etc., and in that moment, he chooses his acculturation strategy. The essential role in such case can also be played by the goal (for a long- term oriented plans vs short-term oriented ones).

Generally speaking, many researchers agree that Cultural intelligence as other abilities are possible to train, mainly by taking part in special conditions of being abroad, like working, studying or even having a vacation abroad (Crowne, 2008).

However, unfortunately, as Menon and Narayanan (2015) stated that people in Asian countries only now start to develop these cross-cultural skills, because before many governments in Asia have been controlling all businesses and limited the possibilities for global environment and competitions. This fact might be especially significant in terms of understanding the Japanese rigidity in cross-cultural issues.

Intercultural contacts and permeability of borders as factors of acculturation and cultural intelligence

We consider Friendship Intensity as it was suggested in the MIRIPS project - as a number of close friends and the frequency of personal meetings with them. Talking more precisely, this is an attempt to measure the cross-cultural experience which can be reflected in the existing contacts with representatives of original, host and other cultures.

Recent studies on Friendship Intensity (Kodja, Lebedeva, Galyapina, Lepshokova, Ryabichenko, 2019) show that it is connected with tolerance settings and the choice of acculturation strategies, especially the integration one. These results show the work of Contact Hypothesis which claims that intergroup relations can be improved through personal contact between representatives of different groups.

Moreover, the intensity of positive contacts contributes to higher levels of cultural intelligence (Bultseva, 2020). Study with Chinese International students showed similar results that intergroup contact has a positive effect on the development of the global competence (Meng, Zhu & Cao, 2017). And, thus, the tighter and denser this communication is, the more chance to find the common sense and lead to mutual acceptance - to integration.

Available theoretical developments, namely Intergroup Contact Theory (Allport, 1954; Pettigrew, 2008) and Culture Learning Theory (Furnham & Bochner, 1986) explain the obtained results in the following way:

1) Intergroup Contact theory says that “there exists a positive effect of intergroup contact on reduced mutual prejudice when the optimal contact conditions are met-meaningful interactions in equal status, pursuit of common goals, cooperative attitudes, etc”. These in its turn leads to effective communication that broadens the knowledge and beliefs of the person;

2) in Culture Learning Theory “social interaction is viewed as a skilled performance, and the learning of culture-specific skills as a response to the new communicative situation”. In such conditions, communication with foreign people may significantly develop the skills and multicultural attitude of a person (Meng, Zhu & Cao, 2017).

Another construct which is interesting for current research is Boundary Permeability that appeared in order to describe the ability to “regard group membership as alterable” (Mummendey, Klink, Mielke, Wenzel, Blanz, 1999). If this ability is not satisfied, means that the boundary is perceived as impermeable, then there is a high chance for social movement to appear. The possibility rises when migrant people feel that they are in the inferior group but believe that they can change the existing order of things.

In present research we are not interested on the “revolutionary mood” of Russian migrants, but we are focusing on the easiness of being included to the host society as a potential predictor of high level of cultural intelligence.

Prior research on Boundary Permeability was concentrated on its connections to xenophobia (Echabe, Castro, 1996), intergroup prejudice (Zhang, Zheng, Liu, Zhao, Sun, 2014) and social mobility (Armenta, Stroebe, Scheibe, Van Yperen, Stegeman, Postmes, 2017), saying that boundary permeability played a key role in explaining intergroup relations. Though, a few studies were related to mainly boundary permeability and cultural intelligence, research done with the connection to acculturation strategies showed that boundary permeability is connected to acculturation strategies (Samnani, 2013).

1.3 Russian people in Japan: Context and the Hypotheses of the Study

Current research is inspired by the evidence that - according to the Rosstat data - the amount of people who have emigrated from Russia increased more than 6 times from 47013 in 2007 to 313210 in 2016 (FSSS, 2018).

Moreover, 20% of Russians admitted that want to emigrate if it is possible (Gallup poll, 2019). Germany and the USA are the most preferred destinations, however, the 3rd place is divided by several states, including Japan, even though Japan is considered as an exotic and culturally distant country.

People who migrate to Japan can have several reasons for that, among which the most popular ones are: Studying, Working, Marriage and others. Japan indeed is good at such characteristics as salary amount and is seen as a highly developed economy and safe society (The Legatum prosperity index, 2019). So usually migration to this country is associated with an economic and social mobility. Especially, when it comes to international marriage with a Japanese person (Chant & Radcliff, 1992).

Moreover, it is noted that women who migrate to Japan are associated with working in the entertainment and sex-related industry, especially it is related to women from the Asian countries (Piper, 1997). However only a little is known about men and women from the Western countries.

In the framework of interstate agreements and domestic laws (extended time for work and living, providing Japanese-language education, detailed assistance for the newcomers to Japan, clarification of the labor rights, permission to apply for a residence permit) (Mitsuru, 2019; BBC, 2018; Osaki, 2019), some programs facilitate immigration, at least educational and working. This course of Japan on opening to internalization can be seen in the big number of foreign workers that are already included into many parts of life - construction, HoReCa, farms if we talk about low-qualified labor. However, many well-trained and highly skilled foreign workers can be also found in such sectors as education, finance, IT. Migrants gained attention in popular culture - they are often shown on TV, participants of sumo fights are coming from Hawaii, Mongolia and Eastern Europe, Miss Japan 2015 is a biracial young woman (Hollifield, Sharpe, 2017). Olympic and Paralympic Games that should have been held in Tokyo in 2020, might have proved the results of the long promotion “unity in diversity” in the Japanese society that Japan is a hospitable and open country.

If in past times Japan had a big flow of foreign labor because people were attracted by the well-developed economy, then now situation has been changed and Japan is witnessing a slow economic deterioration. In order to support the country, to fulfill its needs Japanese government is forced to creatively solve these problems through automatization and foreign workforce (Maruyama, 2018).

Japan is ready to accept migrants due to the needs of the domestic market (Maruyama, 2018): the population is aging (almost with the fastest speed in the world), fighting illegal migration; that is why mainly competent and experienced migrants are welcome. That is, with a good education or with local education. Thus, from the practice side, there is a specific request for the study of Russians in Japan, especially students.

A big Russian Diaspora already exists in Asia, among which 8,000 people are living in Japan. It is noteworthy, that if Japan is known as a monoethnic society, Russian Diaspora represents many ethnic groups, among which there are Russians, Tatars, Jews, and many other nationalities. Usually Russian people acculturate well when move to other countries, as long as many of them have “a higher than average level of education” (Ryazantsev, 2015). Additionally, it leads to quick assimilation in some countries - for example, they quickly start considering themselves as Americans while living in the USA. However, acculturating to Japan causes many difficulties for Russians.

Japan is a country very culturally distant from Russia both in cultural characteristics and in many realities of life. Looking at the comparison of Hofstede's Cultural dimensions of these two countries - Russia and Japan, we may see what parameters can provoke the biggest part of misunderstandings: Power Distance (Japan 54 vs Russia 93, which reflects that though both countries have hierarchical societies, in Russia it is more pronounced as there is one main person who makes decisions, one city (Moscow) that concentrates almost all financial resources and powerful people are very distant from less powerful ones; whereas Japan is less centralized in terms of economy and the decision-making, and the power comes to the most hardworking people), Masculinity (Japan 95 vs Russia 36 expresses the Japanese competitiveness, workaholism, drive for excellence and perfection - the main values in this society, whereas Russian values are closer to “liking of what you do”). However, there are similar levels in Indulgence (Japan 42 vs Russia 20, in both cultures it is widespread to control own desires and do not pay much attention to the leisure time), Individualism (46 vs 39, reflects that people of both countries not so individualistic and rely a lot on the relationships with others), Uncertainty Avoidance (92 vs 95, which shows the desire of Japanese and Russian representatives to be prepared to any uncertain situation, create detailed plans and plenty of bureaucracy), Long Term Orientation (88 vs 81, which reflects that people of both countries share the pragmatic approach and try to prepare for the future).

Moreover, when Russians go to Japan, they experience difficulties in communication - partly because of the language, partly because of the attitude of the local population, not too inclined to accept foreigners very different from them. And we get a paradoxical situation: on the one hand, in order to adapt to some extent in such a culturally distant country, the Russians simply have to somehow develop their cultural intelligence. On the other hand, the situation of intercultural interaction (taking into account the complicated interactions) and the relative short-term stay of some people (students, for example) are unlikely to contribute to the development of their integration strategy - separation is more likely or (if they still want to linger and adapt here, but understand that they are not accepted here as different) assimilation.

First of all, as long as Japan is a monocultural country, attitudes among its citizens towards migrants, in general, are mixed - locals indirectly demonstrate unwillingness to communicate with migrants and to give them the same rights and freedoms (Komatsu, 2000). Especially, that is the challenge for migrants from culturally distant states - in a study among exchange students at a Japanese university, Furukawa (1997a) found that a larger perceived cultural distance between Japan and the foreign community was associated with more psychological distress of the students. Considering the Russian openness and sociability (comparing to Japanese culture), staying in such an unfriendly environment can be perceived as highly fatiguing.

Moreover, there is an image in Japanese society concerning the coming foreigners that they are “very poor, do not have money…Only Japanese people have money” (Tyner, 1996). Image of Japanese society by Japanese people can be described as “homogeneous, middle-class and racially superior” (Suzuki, 1995). These ideas can lead to racism towards in-coming migrants.

In addition, it is important to mention that after the World War II Japan is a patriarchal system where men are seen as “corporate warriors” and women - as “professional housewives” and a “reemployable labor force” (Yoshiko, 1995). Such mindset is necessary to understand because people with a western mindset are often simply not ready to fulfill such roles.

Even though the institutional cultures in Russia and Japan are quite similar in some aspects, for example in professor-student relations and the character of classroom teaching (Kragh & Bislev, 2009), we cannot ignore the fact that due to cultural differences Russian people experience certain difficulties in adaptation in Japan and mainly in communication with locals (Akaha&Vasilieva, 2015).

Not only students, but also businessmen struggle with Japanese society as they face the distrust of Russia, the subtleties of Japanese business etiquette as well as the very long look at the potential partner and slow making decision (Musaev, 2014).

Summing up all above told on cultural intelligence and acculturation in a complicated context, we are coming to the hypotheses of the current study. We expect that:

H1: The intensity of friendly contacts with the Japanese is positively related to cultural intelligence of Russians in Japan.

H2: The intensity of friendly contacts with the Japanese is positively related to the preference for integration and assimilation strategies and negatively related to the preference for a separation strategy.

H3: Integration and assimilation strategies are positively related to cultural intelligence of Russians in Japan, while separation strategies are negatively related to cultural intelligence of Russians in Japan.

H4: Acculturation attitudes mediate the relationship between the intensity of friendly contacts with the Japanese with cultural intelligence of Russians in Japan

RQ: What is the role of permeability of social boundaries in the relationship between the intensity of friendly contacts with the Japanese and acculturation strategies of Russians in Japan? What is the role of permeability of social boundaries in the relationship between the intensity of friendly contacts and cultural intelligence?



Chapter 2: Research Design

2.1 Sample

Sample of this study included 101 respondents. That fits the required sample size obtained with the help of GPower statistics - thus, in accordance with GPower calculations in order to achieve medium effect size (f2 around 0.2) and to have error probability less than 0.05 sample size for this study should be more than 98 respondents. Respondents of the study were of Russian origin from 19 to 47 years old (mean age 27.65); 77 of them are women. More than the half of them (62 respondents) by now have lived in Japan more than 1 year (current duration differs from 3 months to 25 years with average residence time around 5 years). Most of respondents (82 of them) have intentions to stay in Japan for more than a year. The great part of the respondents (93 of them) have higher education or are obtaining it now.

2.2 Design and procedure

The study had a nonexperimental correlational design corresponding to the aim of this work to study the relationship among chosen variables. Intensity of friendly contacts was an independent variable; acculturation strategies were seen as mediators; social boundaries permeability was a moderator; cultural intelligence was a dependent variable. Also, this study took into consideration age, gender, time spent in Japan and intentions to stay there for a longer period as control variables.

Firstly, the questionnaire was sent to 20 people who fulfilled it and shared their experience of passing this task. This was done in the form of short interviews where participants expressed their preference to switching the sequence of the tasks in order to keep the motivation for research and to clarifying the instructions. Both comments were used in the updated version of the questionnaire. The instructions were changed in accordance with the recommendations for the use of CQ Scale to define the culture explicitly (Ng, Van Dyne, Ang, 2012) and included the emphasis on the experience in Japan.

Final data collection procedure included online distribution of the link with the research tasks among participants, who were found via social networks (VKontakte, LINE, Facebook) and websites specifically designed for Russian people in Japan, for example, the groups for the Monbukagakusho Scholarship (MEXT), language schools and groups of fellow countrymen.

In order to increase the interest to participation an express feedback concerning the results was proposed after filling out the questionnaire.

2.3 Research instruments

In this research we had several Independent Variables which are Boundary Permeability, Intensity of Friendly Contacts and Acculturation strategies; and one Dependent Variable which is named as Cultural intelligence.

For this research we used several measurements, among which:

Russian adaptation of “Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies” (MIRIPS) (Berry, 2011) by Lebedeva & Tatarko (2009) for studying Acculturation strategies. This measurement consisted of 12 questions for examination of Integration (for instance, “Russians living in Japan should have both Russian and Japanese friends”), Assimilation (“Russians living in Japan should engage in social activities that involve Japanese only”) and Separation (“I feel that Russians living in Japan should maintain their own cultural traditions and not adapt to those of Japanese”) strategy (excluding Marginalization), with 4 questions per each strategy. Cronbach's á for Integration, Separation and Assimilation strategies equals to 0.67, 0.59 and 0.73 accordingly.

Russian adaptation of Earley and Ang (2003) Cultural intelligence Scale (CQS) (Belovol, Shkvarilo, Khvorova, 2012), consisting of 20 questions measuring all four types of CQ - metacognitive (for example, “I am conscious of the cultural knowledge I apply to cross-cultural interactions”), cognitive (“I know the marriage systems of other cultures”, etc.), motivational (“I am confident that I can socialize with locals in a culture that is unfamiliar to me”, etc.) and behavioral (“I change my non-verbal behavior when a cross-cultural situation requires it”, etc.), however in this work we were more concentrated on a general indicator of Cultural Intelligence; General Cronbach's á = 0.91; Cronbach's á for Metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioral competences equals to 0.82, 0.85, 0.80 and 0.86 accordingly.

Friendship Intensity; this scale included 2 questions which were asked about each of three friend groups: “How many close friends do you have of Russians / Japanese / representatives of another nationality?”, “How often do you meet close friends with Russians / Japanese / representatives of other nationalities” (Lebedeva, Tatarko, 2009). In accordance with the scoring instructions (MIRIPS, 2011) the construct score was calculated as mean for number of friends' times frequency of meetings - so it could vary from 1 to 25. Cronbach's á of general communication intensity = 0.69.

Boundary Permeability - included 4 situations where there is a need to evaluate the possibility of acceptance by a host culture on a 5-point Likert scale from “very hard” to “very easy” (Ren, Tan, Dang, Liu, Zhao, Li, et al, 2018). An example item is “How easy would it be for Russians in Japan to be recognized as Japanese residents”; Cronbach's á = 0.83.

2.4 Methods of data analysis

Data processing was done using such programs as SPSS Version 22 (including Process) and AMOS. Firstly, the data was checked to identify whether there are any missing or outliers. After that, descriptive statistics for all the constructs was calculated as well as correlations between them. Indicators of scales internal consistency were also calculated using reliability analysis). The data gathered with our measurements is proceeded step by step with the multiple regression analysis, SEM in AMOS in order to conduct mediation analysis, and moderation analysis in Process. That allowed us to scrutinize the relationships among our variables in accordance with the suggested hypotheses.



Chapter 3. Results of the study

3.1 Description of the constructs

The descriptive statistics for key variables are provided in the table 1 below. Judging from the means obtained we can say that our respondent assessed rather favorably their level of cultural intelligence. They also clearly demonstrate preference for integration acculturation strategy. However, intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese was not high, and the social boundaries permeability was assessed on the middle level.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of the key constructs

Construct	Mean	St.dev.
Cultural intelligence (average)	5.30	0.83
Meta-cognitive component	5.57	1.00
Cognitive component	4.98	1.07
Motivational component	5.25	0.97
Behavioral component	5.54	1.08
Integration acculturation strategy	4.28	0.64
Assimilation acculturation strategy	1.98	0.73
Separation acculturation strategy	2.08	0.68
Intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese	6.69	5.35
Social boundaries permeability	2.50	0.73

The correlations between key constructs are provided in the Appendices (appendix B). Correlation analysis have shown that all the components of cultural intelligence are related to each other; also, they are related to integration strategy and intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese (except for cognitive component). Intensity of friendly contacts was found to be positively related only with the assimilation strategy. Duration of stay in Japan and intentions to stay where longer than for one year were not related with cultural intelligence or with acculturation strategies; as well as age. Permeability of social boundaries was positively related with the intensity of friendly contacts and assimilation strategy, while it was negatively related to separation strategy.

3.2 Relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese, acculturation strategies and cultural intelligence

In order to reveal the relationship between investigated constructs and take into consideration control variables, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was applied. Control variables such as gender, age, duration of living in Japan and intention to stay in Japan for more than 1 year were used on the 1st step of analysis, while intensity of friendly contacts and acculturation strategies were added at the second step of the analysis. As distinctions between components of cultural intelligence were not at the core of this study and were not mentioned in the hypotheses, regression analysis was done considering cultural intelligence in general. Next, mediation analysis was conducted, where cultural intelligence was operationalized as latent variable, while intensity of contacts and acculturation strategies were taken into consideration in the same model.

Intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and cultural intelligence

The results of regression analysis (provided in Table 2 below) show that while our control variables were not significantly related to cultural intelligence of Russians in Japan, intensity of friendly contacts was a positive significant predictor. Thus, the more Japanese-friends respondents have and more they interact with them, the higher is their cultural intelligence. Thus, it confirms 1st hypothesis of this study.



Table 2. Regression analysis of relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and cultural intelligence

Variable	Step 1 (control variables)		Step 2
	B	SE B	â		B	SE B	â
Age	0.01	0.01	0.06		0.01	0.02	0.11
Gender	0.28	0.2	0.14		0.28	0.18	0.15
Duration of stay	0.00	0.00	0.02		0.00	0.00	-0.08
Intention to stay	-0.06	0.22	-0.03		-0.17	0.21	-0.08
Intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese	-	-	-		0.06	0.02	0.38**
R2	0.04		0.16
F	0.85		3.57**

**p<0.01

Intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and acculturation strategies

The results of regression analysis (provided in Table 3) show that both control variables and intensity of friendly contacts were not significantly related to integration acculturation strategy of Russians in Japan.

Table 3. Regression analysis of relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and Integration acculturation strategy

Variable	Step 1 (control variables)		Step 2
	B	SE B	â		B	SE B	â
Age	0.00	0.02	0.00		0.00	0.02	-0.00
Gender	0.00	0.16	0.00		0.01	0.16	0.00
Duration of stay	-0.00	0.00	-0.12		-0.00	0.00	-0.11
Intention to stay	0.13	0.18	0.08		0.14	0.18	0.08
Intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese	-	-	-		-0.01	0.01	-0.06
R2	0.02		0.02
F	0.39		0.38

The results of regression analysis (provided in Table 4) show that majority of control variables were not significantly related to assimilation acculturation strategy of Russians in Japan, though there is a tendency for age to be negatively related to assimilation (p<0.1). The exception was intention to stay for more than one year in Japan as it was positively related to assimilation. Intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese also was positively related to assimilation.

Table 4. Regression analysis of relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and Assimilation acculturation strategy

Variable	Step 1 (control variables)		Step 2
	B	SE B	â		B	SE B	â
Age	-0.03	0.02	-0.23		-0.02	0.02	-0.19
Gender	0.02	0.18	0.01		0.02	0.16	0.01
Duration of stay	0.00	0.00	0.02		0.00	0.00	-0.12
Intention to stay	0.45	0.19	0.24*		0.37	0.19	0.20*
Intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese	-	-	-		0.04	0.01	0.31**
R2	0.10		0.18
F	2.47		4.08**

*p<0.05; **p<0.01

Finally, the results of regression analysis (provided in Table 5) show that both control variables and intensity of friendly contacts were not significantly related to separation acculturation strategy of Russians in Japan. Though it is worth mentioning that there is a tendency for intention to stay in Japan to be negatively related with separation strategy (p<0.1).

Table 5. Regression analysis of relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and Separation acculturation strategy

Variable	Step 1 (control variables)		Step 2
	B	SE B	â		B	SE B	â
Age	-0.00	0.02	-0.05		0.00	0.02	-0.07
Gender	0.25	0.16	0.15		0.25	0.16	0.16
Duration of stay	0.00	0.00	0.11		0.00	0.00	0.16
Intention to stay	-0.35	0.18	-0.20		-0.31	0.18	-0.18
Intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese	-	-	-		-0.02	0.01	-0.14
R2	0.08		0.09
F	1.79		1.84

Thus, we can say that the 2nd hypothesis of the study was partly confirmed considering positive relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and assimilation acculturation strategy.

2.2 Acculturation strategies and cultural intelligence

The results of regression analysis (provided in Table 6 below) show that integration strategy was positively related to cultural intelligence. Though the relationships of other acculturation strategies with cultural intelligence were not significant, it is worth mentioning that there is a tendency (p<0.1) for assimilation strategy to be also positively related to cultural intelligence. Thus, it confirms 3rd hypothesis of this study was partially supported considering integration strategy.

Table 6. Regression analysis of relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and cultural intelligence

Variable	Step 1 (control variables)		Step 2
	B	SE B	â		B	SE B	â
Age	0.01	0.01	0.06		0.01	0.02	0.09
Gender	0.28	0.2	0.14		0.32	0.18	0.17
Duration of stay	0.00	0.00	0.02		0.00	0.00	0.13
Intention to stay	-0.06	0.22	-0.03		-0.28	0.2	-0.14
Integration	-	-	-		0.60	0.11	0.48**
Assimilation	-	-	-		0.20	0.11	0.18
Separation	-	-	-		-0.18	0.12	-0.15
R2	0.04		0.30
F	0.85		5.46**

**p<0.01

Role of acculturation strategies in relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and cultural intelligence of Russians

In order to test hypothesis about mediation, the model including all key variables of the study was built in AMOS (see figure 1). Cultural intelligence was considered as a latent variable with 4 subscales, other variables were taken as a means for the scales. For the better visualization of the results correlations are not shown on the figure. The results (see table # in Appendix C) show the same patters as were revealed at the previous steps of analysis with the help of regression analysis. However, any mediation effect was not found as all indirect effects in the model were not significant: nor through integration (â=-0,06, p>0.05), nor through assimilation (â=0.02, p>0.05), nor through separation (â=0.01, p>0.05). . Thus, 4th hypothesis of the study was rejected.

Figure 1. Model explaining relationship between constructs

Note: CMIN/df=1.95; GFI=0.95; CFI=0.94; RMSEA=0.09

3.3 Role of social boundaries permeability in the relationship between investigated constructs

In order to answer the research question about the role of permeability of social boundaries in the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese, acculturation strategies and cultural intelligence, moderation analysis in SPSS Process was applied. As moderation analysis shows only unstandardized regression coefficients, variables have been standardized before conducting the analysis. The general research question was divided into 3 parts, the results below follow the logic of such a division.

Role of permeability of social boundaries in the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts and acculturation strategies

The results of final step of moderation analysis (table 7 below) show that social boundaries permeability does not play any moderation role in the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and cultural intelligence. Thus, Russians in Japan choose integration strategy no matter whether they have high or low intensity of communication with Japanese friends in conditions when they feel they can be accepted in the society or not.

Table 7. Moderation role of social boundaries permeability in the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts and integration

Predictor Outcome	Intensity of friendly contacts	Social boundaries permeability	Interaction of intensity and permeability
	â	â	â
Integration	-0.12	0.15	-0.00
R2	0.02
F	0.79

**p <0.01

The results of final step of moderation analysis (table 8 below) show that social boundaries permeability weaken the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and assimilation.

Table 8. Moderation role of social boundaries permeability in the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts and assimilation

Predictor Outcome	Intensity of friendly contacts	Social boundaries permeability	Interaction of intensity and permeability
	â	â	â
Assimilation	0.25**	0.20*	-0.24*
R2	0.16
F	6.10**

Specifically, conditional effect analysis shows that when social boundaries are perceived as highly permeable, when the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with assimilation strategy becomes not significant.

Table 9. Conditional effects of intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese depending on social boundaries permeability

Social boundaries permeability	Effect	p
Low	0.49	0.00
Middle	0.25	0.01
High	0.01	0.92

Generally speaking, that means that if Russians in Japan believe that they can easily penetrate into the local society, that is not important for their assimilation any more whether they communicate intensively or rarely with their local friends. This conclusion is visualized on the figure 2 below.

Figure 2. Moderation role of social boundaries permeability in the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and Assimilation

The results of final step of moderation analysis (table 10 below) show that social boundaries permeability weaken the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and separation strategy.

Table 10. Moderation role of social boundaries permeability in the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts and assimilation

Predictor Outcome	Intensity of friendly contacts	Social boundaries permeability	Interaction of intensity and permeability
	â	â	â
Assimilation	0.11	-0.31**	0.25*
R2	0.16
F	6.10**

Specifically, conditional effect analysis shows that when social boundaries are perceived as low permeable, when the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with separation is negative. However, with the growth of permeability it becomes not significant.

Table 10. Conditional effects of intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese depending on social boundaries permeability

Social boundaries permeability	Effect	p
Low	-0.35	0.02
Middle	-0.1	0.29
High	0.14	0.28

Generally speaking, that means that if Russians in Japan believe that they cannot penetrate into the local society, then intensive communication with local friends will lead to a low probability of choice of separation strategy. However, with the growth of perceived permeability that is not important for separation anymore whether they communicate intensively or rarely with their local friends. This conclusion is visualized on the figure 3 below.

Figure 3. Moderation role of social boundaries permeability in the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and Separation

Role of permeability of social boundaries in the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts and cultural intelligence

The results of final step of moderation analysis (table 12 below) show that social boundaries permeability does not play any moderation role in the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese and cultural intelligence. Thus, intensity of friendly contacts with Japanese is positively related to cultural intelligence of Russians in Japan without any dependence on social boundaries permeability.



Table 12. Moderation role of social boundaries permeability in the relationship between intensity of friendly contacts and cultural intelligence

Predictor Outcome	Intensity of friendly contacts	Social boundaries permeability	Interaction of intensity and permeability

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