OK, this seems like something really out of the blue, but it was triggered by an exchange I had over a social media platform direct messaging service recently (think Messenger, Twitter DMs etc). Responses from anyone are appreciated, but I’d particularly like the input of people who have lived in Japan or who have experience talking to Japanese people (more than me – I’ve been doing it for maybe 3 months? – ideally).
Have you ever asked a question in the midst of a conversation (or via a message) that got completely ignored, even when you repeated it? If it’s happened to you, does this happen only via text, or in verbal exchanges as well? Have you noticed any patterns as to when this happens (e.g. does it seem to be a question the other person just doesn’t want to answer)?
If you want the context, the short version is that I was chatting with a Japanese fan about a VTuber, and he mentioned a particular karaoke stream during which something happened. I thought it was something recent (because while the event sounded familiar to me, I felt like the occurrence I remembered had happened quite a long time ago), so I asked when it had happened. That got ignored, so I tried again. Ignored again. The rest of the conversation was going very smoothly otherwise, as far as I can tell. (And to be clear, the conversation actually continued even though my question was ignored: he just picked up the other topic that was present and directed things that way.)
In short, what I’m asking myself now is if this is a common way to avoid an uncomfortable topic in Japan, or if I should just take it the same way as I would with any other person (i.e. this is just typical mildly sociopathic behaviour that anyone could choose to have).