The purpose of this study is (1) to show how the direct experiences of a group of Japanese university students on a visit to Korea influenced their images of Koreans and (2) to examine the persistence of the effects of that direct experience on that image. In order directly to analyze the image changes, interview surveys were conducted three times - (1) before the informants visited Korea, (2) immediately after they visited Korea, and (3) five months after the second survey. The same six informants were consulted for each interview.
The findings are as follows : (1) The experience of the students who visited Korea produced images related to personality traits of Koreans ; (2) as a result of their experiences of visiting Korea, a previously unarticulated anxiety and wariness about Koreans on the part of the Japanese students appeared to diminish ; (3) the Japanese students' experiences of visiting Korea worked to counteract their previously superficial images of Koreans ; (4) the images received by the Japanese students from their visit to Korea are likely to endure ; and (5) image changes caused by the visit to Korea like those referred to in (2) and (3), are not likely to endure.

特集 : 人間科学#寄稿論文