Beginning in the seventies two countries, one European - Italy -, the other Asian - Japan -, have developed two schools in the field of business communication. The first regarded the concept of ?total business communication', the second concerned the concept of ?koukoku'. The two schools have complex points of contact between them.Given this scenario, it seemed interesting to the authors to return to the basic concepts of their different schools, to explore their origins, compare their characteristics and set out their distinctive features - also with reference to the dominant school -, as a way both to better understand the reasons behind the development of these different schools in the field of business communication and to draw some conclusions for the future.