The research reported in this document was designed to discover whether the Japanese consider themselves apprehensive in communication situations. Seven hundred Japanese college students and 700 United States students took the Personal Report of Communication Apprehention (PRCA) test, which focuses on feelings about communicating with others on a one-to-one basis, in small groups, and before audiences. Results showed that the Japanese students were more apprehensive than the United States students in all three types of speaking situations. Because the PRCA was conceived and developed in the United States, however, its results for other cultural populations may not be reliable. Five distinctions between Japanese and United States culture may account for the apparently high apprehension level among the Japanese students: a group versus individualistic orientation, aesthetic versus cognitive style of communicating, nonpersuasive versus persuasive talk, insistence on total understanding versus flexibility, and indirect versus direct talk. This research and the five cross-cultural distinctions can help United States and Japanese people understand each other's different styles during interaction. (CC)