Equivalence of serufuesutei‐mu (self‐esteem) and jisonshin in Japan

Most studies of Japanese self‐esteem have implicitly assumed that the concept of self‐esteem (SE) is indigenously meaningful. However, this has not been shown to be true. The present research investigated whether the indigenous Japanese word jisonshin is semantically equivalent to the English expression SE and, by implication, whether it denotes the same concept as originally delineated by Rosenberg, that of having a positive attitude toward oneself. Japanese participants (N = 234) responded to 11 pairs of statements about SE and several other items. Half of the statements contained the expression serufuesutei‐mu (self‐esteem), the other half the expression jisonshin. Participants independently judged the two expressions to be ‘basically’ synonymous, but endorsed some otherwise identical statements significantly more often when they contained the expression serufuesutei‐mu, suggesting that the differences were due to the foreign connotations of the expression serufuesutei‐mu.