Japanese Intercultural Communiccative Strategies in Multinational Companies

摘要

The purpose of this study is to describe, from a sociolinguistic perspective, major language functions during which Japanese-American communication occurs in multinational companies in the United States. Comparing communication problems across major language functions and research memos, five major themes emerged: (1)foramlity; (2)social hierarchical distinctons; (3)ambiguous communication strategies; (4)consensus making; and (5)language attitudes. This paper also aims to identify the intercultural communicative strategies that might assist Japanese workers to negociate communicative events.