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Japanese at Work pp 1–14Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Introduction

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Part of the book series: Communicating in Professions and Organizations ((PSPOD))

Abstract

This chapter first reviews some of the major findings from previous studies on both Japan-specific and cross-cultural workplace discourse, then proceeds to identify some gaps which the present volume aims to fill. These center around, first, language socialization for workplace purposes. Such socialization, we argue, takes place on two fronts: the overt training that goes on within companies or their hired surrogates and the more implicit “training” that occurs through the consumption of popular media fictional texts set in workplaces. The Introduction gives a preview of the socialization processes that contribute to normative behavior in the Japanese workplace. It also introduces the questions that have been (and have not been) asked of the real workplace, setting the stage for the intrusion of often non-normative verbal practices that exceed the parameters of the normative. These are the heart of the chapter that form the core of the empirical studies of this book. The Introduction concludes by identifying some common methodological threads that tie the chapters together and provides a brief introduction to each chapter.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Naked-plain forms are plain forms without an affect key such as a sentence-final particle (e.g., wakaru ‘understand’), and non-naked-plain forms are those with an affect key (e.g., wakaru ne ‘understand + ne’).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Haruko Minegishi Cook

  2. University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Janet S. Shibamoto-Smith

Authors
  1. Haruko Minegishi Cook
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  2. Janet S. Shibamoto-Smith
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Haruko Minegishi Cook

  2. University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Janet S. Shibamoto-Smith

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Cook, H.M., Shibamoto-Smith, J.S. (2018). Introduction. In: Cook, H., Shibamoto-Smith, J. (eds) Japanese at Work. Communicating in Professions and Organizations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63549-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63549-1_1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63548-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63549-1

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