Japanese communication style is often described as characterized by indirectness and vagueness. How much truth is there in this cliché? In trying answering this question, I will first review some of the major theoretical ethnographic studies on Japanese language and culture that intended to explain from different angles the recurrent use of indirectness and vagueness in the Japanese discourse system. In this connection, I will point out that it is often difficult to determine to what extent many scholars’ accounts can be viewed as non-stereotypical and bias-free, and from which viewpoint their descriptions is to be considered unnatural or fragmentary. I will then analyze the Japanese communication style, focusing on a sort of ambiguity that indeed appears to characterize the way many Japanese communicate verbally. My analysis will be based on authentic segments extracted from email messages written by native speakers of Japanese at a workplace.

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