LINDSAY AMTHOR YOTSUKURA, Negotiating moves: Problem presentation and resolution in Japanese business discourse

Abstract

Lindsay Amthor Yotsukura, Negotiating moves: Problem presentation and resolution in Japanese business discourse. Oxford: Elsevier, 2003. Pp. xxi, 370. Hb $85.00.Negotiating moves contributes to the understanding of typical negotiation strategies shared by Japanese business professionals, with an emphasis on empiricism. Given that only anecdotal evidence is available from prior investigations of Japanese conflict management, Yotsukura conducted her study based on a large number of naturally occurring interactions extracted from more than 540 authentic business calls at companies in the Kanto (eastern) and Kansai (western) regions of Japan. Major thrusts of this study include its ingenious framework of analysis, which goes beyond the traditional “context-free” approach of conversation analysis (CA) (p. 2). It integrates ethnographic dimensions into analyses and interpretations and adapts the Bakhtinian notion of speech genres. Genres are derived from commonalities and shared communicative activities that native speakers are assumed to develop through recurring experiences in their everyday lives. This study also rigorously explores cultural reasons why Japanese people behave linguistically in certain ways, based on some metalinguistic traits unique to the culture. While it may be quite debatable whether all of these theses bear fruit in research outcomes, the actual negotiating processes to which Japanese business professionals typically resort are well documented and described in a manner comprehensible even to a general audience, as well as to learners of Japanese as a foreign language.