The present article focuses on linguistic and sociocultural problems of Japanese as a tool for transcultural communication. Among the linguistic problems are the Japanese sentence structure and the fact that a great number of Japanese words have similar sounds but different meanings. Among the sociocultural problems are the cultural hierarchy and the so-called 'silent culture' of the Japanese: a Japanese sees another as an extension like hemself of homegeneous national identity and takes it for granted that he understands his fellow Japanese and vice versa. The author concludes with some remarks on interpreter training and the use of interpreters.