Yesterday I was involved in a meeting with a large Japanese company, the second one in as many months. Entertaining Japanese guests in our office in Boston is fairly rare, I thought I would share my thoughts on some cultural learnings.
1) In the Japanese culture, it is common practice to put “-san” at the end of a colleagues last name as a sign of respect. This is done all the time. To try to do this with your American colleagues in front of your Japanese colleagues will come off sounding strange and awkward. Don’t try it. Leave it as a Japanese custom.
2) Business cards are a big deal in Japan. Immediately after shaking hands, it is customary to give your business card, or present your card, to the person you are meeting. Japanese business cards often have information in Japanese on one side and English on the other. The proper custom is to hand the card to the person you are meeting with the appropriate language up, with the words in the direction the person can read them. Also, do not put the card in your shirt or pants pocket after you get it, and don’t write on it, both are signs of disrespect. You are suppose to put the cards neatly in front of you and, well, not sure what to do other than keep them there.
3) In meetings in the US, it is customary for the person moderating the meeting to introduce him/herself, then go around the table in single form, with the person next to the moderator going next, then the person next to him, etc. In Japanese culture, right after the moderator or host introduces himself, you should allow the most senior Japanese colleague introduce himself, and he will decide who should be introduced next. We learned this the hard way.
4) When giving a presentation in front of a number of Japanese businessmen, don’t be insulted if they speak to themselves while you are speaking. They are not talking about the Chunichi Dragons. The ones who speak good English are translating to the ones that don’t. It is a natural reaction to stop the presentation to allow them to finish their conversations or ask questions, but you have to overcome that and realize there is translating going on.
5) When presenting a topic one is familiar with, it is often a tendency to get slightly animated about the topic and talk with passion. When giving a presentation in front of people that do not speak your language, pretend you are running under water. Slow down, pause a lot.
6) Playing charades to try to overcome the language barrier will look goofy and stupid.
7) Never, ever, ever, allow the subject of World War 2 to be brought up. In Japan, 99% of insurance agents are women, compared to probably around 10% in the US. When asked why this was, one of our American colleagues wrongly answered because women are the financial head of the household. This not only was slightly insulting to fairly high level members of the Japanese contingent, but it was wrong. The most senior guy, whose father was probably in World War 2, explained it was because widows of WWII had to find work and it has remained the same since then. Very bad. We forget that it was only two generations ago that our boys were fighting their boys, that a war was going on, that very bad things happened.
8) It is customary for the visitor to bring a gift for the host. It is also common practice for the host to provide a gift for the visitor. This was fun but kind of awkward at the end of the day. It felt like Christmas with 18 strangers.
9) Bowing is customary in the Japanese culture. It is not in the American culture. Do not try to bow when introduced to a Japanese person. Ever. You will look funny and it is not expected when in the US.
10) In the US during working lunches with members of different organizations, it is common practice to site together and either work or get to know each other. When this happened with Japanese members, they sat together in an adjoining room and enjoyed lunch in their native language, among themselves. Not sure if this is a Japanese thing or it just turned out that way.
11) Finally, and this is a well known piece of advice, talking louder to someone who doesnot speak English will not get them to understand your language. It will just sound like you are shouting, which can be amplified in a conference room. Better is to speak softer, slower, and look at the translator to help out.
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