Japanese children are socialized to internalize parental, group, and institutional norms. Japanese adults believe "good" children to be sunao (cooperative). Sunao is difficult to translate into English, but can be thought of as being gentle and spirited. This paper presents a study that examined and described feelings and thoughts of Japanese children, their parents, and their teachers about sunao in a school setting. The kindergarten selected for this study was located in Kawasaki city, a middle class suburb near Tokyo. It was a traditional Japanese kindergarten and as such involved considerable group work. Children worked together on projects. At times the classes seemed to represent a single entity rather than a collection of individuals. The following themes emerged from analysis of the data: (1) sunao as a fundamental characteristic of the child; (2) sunao as both a positive and negative concept depending upon the use; and (3) sunao as a result of how the child is treated by others. Of the 60 children in the study, 56 understood sunao to be a positive attitude. Of the 69 adults, 26 defined sunao as honesty. Thirty of the 69 adults considered sunao to be a part of the whole child who is able to keep interpersonal harmony within a group situation. Sunao as behavior also can be seen two ways: being sunao to one's self and being sunao to others. The paper reports that sunao is one of the fundamental characteristics of the child: it affects their very being; how they behave and what they feel. Adults try to foster sunao through communication, modeling, and praise. Contains 17 references. (DK)