Comments on "Japanese Negotiating Behavior: Psychological and Psychoanalitic Dimensions"―Paper presented by Prof. Peter Berton

that this psychology affects the negotiating behaviour of the Japanese.Allow me to talk first on amae at some lenght.Prof. Doi admits that the desire to depend may be a universal sentiment.However, he assumes that the Japanese are particularly familiar with the emotion the word amae represents, because of his belief that there is no corresponding word to amae in Western languages.In Spanish there is no corresponding verb to amaeru (in a typical case, a baby amaeru towards his mother), and only exists "mimar" which corresponds to amayakasu (for example, a mother amayakasu her baby = to spoil).However, "mimar" appears to me to possess a more acceptable or even agreeable connotation than "to spoil" in English.As to adjectives, there exist not only "mimado," equivalent of "spoiled," but also "mimoso" which may be translated as loving or likable.In Indonesian there is "mania" which is used in the same way as amaeru."Mania" is the root word, while "memanjakan" which can be translated as "to spoil" is a derivative.This is exactly same as in Japanese.This is no more than my very wild guess, but I suspect that among Asian languages there may be some others which possess words equivalent of amaeru.A comparative study to corroborate this fact and to compare the connotations which the equivalent words of amaeru in distinct languages carry with them may be interesting philologically and sociologically.The second point I would like to mention in connection with the amae psychology is that the very existence of the word may be a reflection of the Japanese culture in which interpersonal relations are given utmost importance.Prof. Doi mentions in the foreword of the tenth year's Japanese edition of his famed book "The anatomy of dependence" that he felt that Japanese people might take just pride in possessing the amae sensitivity.Furthermore, in his book he admits that amae is not just a one-way sentiment from below to above quoting as an example the case of the emperor.If amae or dependence works both ways, it comes to constitute an interdependence, which is given high value in any society.One can depend only when there is readiness on the part of the partner to be depended 1-288