The key to professional success in Japan is understanding Japanese people. The authors, seasoned cross-cultural trainers for businesspeople, provide a practical set of guidelines for understanding Japanese people and culture through David A. Victor's LESCANT approach of evaluating a culture's language, environment, social organization, context, authority, nonverbal communication, and time conception. Each chapter addresses one of these topics and shows effective strategies to overcoming cultural barriers and demonstrates how to evaluate the differences between Japan and North America to help avoid common communication mistakes. The book is generously peppered with photographs to provide visual examples. Exploring language and communication topics, international relations, and the business community, this book is an excellent intercultural overview for anyone traveling to or working in Japan.
Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables
List of Photographs
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Japanese Language: One Language, One Country
2. The Japanese Environment: Ma 間 the Human Translation of Natural Space
3. Japanese Social Organization: Inside and Outside Faces
4. Japanese Contexting: Listener Talk 101
5. The Japanese Authority Conception: Playing Chess or Playing Go
6. Japanese Nonverbal Communication: Not Just About a Bow
7. The Japanese Temporal Conception: The Right Thing at the Right Time
8. Case Study: Getting Down to Earth with Cloud Computing
Notes
Index
About the Authors
Reviews
"A nuanced, vividly illustrated set of practical recommendations . . . a must read for scholars and students in intercultural communication, sociology, language and social interaction, and linguistics."—Choice
"The authors define issues with great clarity and outline useful approaches to cross-cultural understanding and communication. This book will be of enormous value."—William Breer, retired US diplomat
"With a strong bicultural vision. . . , 7 Keys to Communicating in Japan offers insight for professionals who hope to have a deeper interaction with the Japanese. Highly recommended for newcomers as well as seasoned professionals."—Yoshiko Koike, President, The Kitano Hotel
About the Author
Haru Yamada is the author of Different Games, Different Rules: Why Americans and Japanese Misunderstand Each Other, is a contributing editor to L'Echo, and consults on various communications issues.
Orlando R. Kelm, PhD, is an associate professor of Hispanic linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches courses in Portuguese and Spanish, focusing mainly on business language and the cultural aspects of international business communication. He also serves as the Director of the UT Portuguese Language Flagship. His research and publications center on the cultural aspects of international business and pedagogical applications of innovative technologies in language learning, focusing mainly on Latin America and Brazil. Together with coauthor David A. Victor, he published the first volume in this series, The Seven Keys To Communicating in Brazil: An Intercultural Approach (Georgetown University Press, 2016). With coauthors David A. Victor and Haru Yamada, he published the second volume in this series, The Seven Keys To Communicating in Japan: An Intercultural Approach (Georgetown University Press, 2017).
David A. Victor, PhD, is a tenured professor of management and international business at Eastern Michigan University, as well as a consultant, author, and editor. He teaches courses on managing world business communication, international management, and international business and offers a series of seminars on doing business in various countries, including Brazil. As a consultant, he has run training programs and coached the leaders of more than 200 companies and organizations, ranging from global 500 companies to governments and nongovernmental organizations. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Global Advances in Business Communication Journal. Among his many publications is the groundbreaking International Business Communication (HarperCollins, 1992), which introduced the LESCANT Model used as the framework for this book.
