Japanese Business Culture - Differences with the West
Carole Goldsmith - Copyright © 2012 - 2013 All Rights Reserved
One of the major differences between western companies and Asian
companies is the individual versus the group culture.
In western countries like America and Australia, individual culture
prevails. Western corporate individuals make decisions no matter what
management level they are in the company. Individualism is rewarded as many
companies will have awards for best employee, staff member who introduced the
best environmental initiatives or some other great suggestion. There are some
team decisions, but often individual managers may make decisions for the group.
In Asia, the group culture still exists very much and decisions are made
in groups. Many companies in Asia originated from family companies like
Matsushita and Sony in Japan.
Suggestion schemes are very popular in Japan and team decisions that
help the company to succeed are rewarded but not to individuals, but to the
team that made the decision.
Also workers in Japan are listened to more by Japanese managers as
occurs in the West. Some western manager may think they know it all and do not
listen to the suggestions made by their employees, when they should.
Business relationships in Asia are much more formal than those in the
West. As an example in Asia (Japan, Korea and China) you will call your work
colleagues or business associates, Mr,
Mrs or Miss and by their family name.
In America and Australia, you generally use their first name right from
day one when you start the job or when you meet a business contact .
In Germany, however it is quite formal in the work place. When I worked
in scientific research at Farbwerke Hoechst, a very large pharmaceutical
company, my manager and
Work colleagues always called me Frau (Mrs) and my surname.
Shaking hands when you meet someone in business is common practice in
Australia, USA, Germany and France.
Trust and introductions – long term relationships are vital to doing
business in Asia.
This is not so important in Australia and USA.
Business card exchange ritual
Business card exchange is also very different between the west and the
east. When Japanese people exchange business cards, it is a very
important part of doing business.
At a meeting, from senior manager first, you exchange business cards one
at a time with both hands with the person’s details upwards so you can read the
card. Then the cards are placed in front of you in the order that they are
sitting. I really like this system as it
gives you the chance to know the person’s title and their name, especially in
my case when I am interviewing several people at the one time.
Western businesses doing business in Asia may not know about the Asian
business card exchange ritual. I have seen western business people deal out
their business card like a pack on cards to the people at the Japanese business
meeting. Then when they receive the Japanese person’s business card, they may
scribble some notes on the back of the card to remind them where they have met
the person. Japanese in particular will regard this with shock as this system
of business card exchange will not be acceptable to Japanese business.
If Asian business people are working in the USA or Asia, you will need
to adjust to the Western way and not expect everything to be done the Asian
way.
Seating with senior people in particular positions like in Japan and
China is not as rigid in Australia and the USA. In Australian meetings, (and
maybe in USA business meetings) people can sit anywhere in the room, except if
they are the chairperson or secretary. Japan, and I think China and Korea have
quite a rigid seating arrangement according to their level of seniority in the
company.
Even job titles and the companies you work for are of vital importance
in Japan and Korea and you generally need to be introduced by someone
reputable, before you can do business.
I recall when I was going to
Korea and wanted to arrange interviews, for an environmental article I was
writing, with one of Korea’s largest manufacturing companies. Firstly, I had to
get a letter of introduction from my magazine’s editor, and then I had to go
through the Sydney office of the Korean company for an introduction to the
corporate affairs manager at the Seoul head office.
I have written several articles on Toyota Motor Corporation’s (TMC)
(Japan) excellent environmental and human resources initiatives and over ten
years have developed a great relationship with TMC. When I wanted to write
articles on TMC’s Australian operations, TMC’s corporate affairs in Tokyo
introduced me to the public relations staff at Toyota Australia.
On another occasion, I was writing for tax, law, business publisher CCH
Australia and I wanted to write for their Asian operations. So the Australian
editor introduced me to the CCH Singapore editor, who in turn suggested that I
contact the CCH Japan editor. So I then wrote freelance for all three
operations.
If I wanted to conduct an interview in an American or Australian
company, I would just call them to arrange an interview. With larger companies,
I would probably go directly through their corporate affairs department.
Although introductions are helpful in Australia and USA, they are not as
important as in Asia, where who you know prevails and will help you to get a foot in the door.
Of course with Linked In now operating different global groups, it will
be very advantageous to you to have a professional profile on Linked In. This
will always help with introductions to people in the east or west.
There are also many small business entrepreneurs in the west,
particularly in Australia and the USA.
If you are a Japanese small business owner in Korea, you should call
yourself president and not director as this title not regarded as a high level
position in Korea.
Asian people are sometimes introverted, humble and a little shy, whereas
Americans are sometimes loud and very open in their conversations. They are
also very instant, responding within 24 hours.
You can cold call American many times and they will think you are very persistent
In Australia they would think you are a nuisance and a spammer and probably
hang up in your ear.
Many American companies are very philanthropic and donate money to
community groups and charities. They also have very big research and
development departments as do Japanese companies. As Australia is a much less
populated country, only around six percent of companies are large, the
remainder are small to medium businesses.
Hence research and development expenditure is probably much lower in
Australia than in Japan and USA.
More - Cultural differences – Westerners should learn the symbols for
male and female.
I recall staying somewhere in Tokyo when I first went to Japan and they
had community baths. I went there one day and it was a female bathroom. The
next day I went to the same bathroom and a group of Singapore men came in when
I was getting undressed.
They showed me the character on the door for male and I have never
forgotten the male and female characters to this day.
Japanese sniff constantly and this is very annoying to westerners, who
blow their nose in public and put their dirty tissue in their pocket- this
being very annoying to Japanese.
I was in a Japanese language class in Australia and the assistant
Japanese teacher was constantly doing deep sniffs and it was making me sick. So
eventually I had to tell him that we do not do that in Australia. Deep sniffing
and spitting on the street, as I saw in China and Japan is a really quite
disgusting for us westerners.
For Japanese going to work in Australia, do not sniff, or spit in the
street, this is a no no. politely excuse yourself and spit in the toilet, if
you need to do that, or privately into your tissue and dispose of it in the
nearest bin.
Many westerners, including me, find that lack of smoking control in the
workplace, restaurants, clubs and pubs in Japan very difficult to cope with.
In
Australia, all workplaces, restaurants, pubs and clubs are tobacco smoke free. I
get asthma around cigarette smoke, so if I am attending a business meeting in a
restaurant in Japan and people are smoking, I cannot stay. Japan is lagging
greatly behind Australia, Korea and other parts of the world in smoking control
in indoor venues. Staff working in Japanese restaurants, pubs, clubs and even
other workplaces is constantly exposed to cigarette smoke. Western business people are used to smoke
free meeting places in workplaces and restaurants. When they come to Japan they
are exposed to second hand smoke and find this very difficult.
So for Japanese going to work in Australia, we are mainly a smoke free
nation, so it is probably time to give up.
Also you probably will finish work at 5 PM or 6 PM and not being
encouraged to work the long hours you do in Japan. Work life balance is quite important in
Australia.
Punctuality is not as rigid in Australia as in Japan and Korea. People
may arrive at a meeting five or ten minutes late, unlike Japan where everyone
arrives five minutes early.
Corporate Australia and corporate
America are similar; the CEO’s earn ridiculously high multimillion dollar
salaries. Company directors are mainly males and they also receive high
incomes. Shareholders are quite vocal and at times question decisions made by
the board.
In comparison, to my knowledge, the
financial returns of Japanese company presidents / CEO’s is only about triple
what their employees earn, or that may be changing now. Shareholders of
Japanese companies are generally a lot quieter than their western counterpart.
Australia is a multi cultural society
and all different types of nationalities are employed in Australian workplaces.
Equal employment laws are in place that are supposed to protect people of
different culture and nationalities. However racism does exist in Australia
against different nationalities and even against Australian indigenous people
whose ancestors have lived in Australia for millions of years. Japan also may have its own racism against
some western nations.
In Australia, we use British English
and not USA English. There are differences and sometimes it becomes very confusing.
Like the time I was in Virginia in the USA and I was talking to a young man
about the Town Clerk (the head person of a City council in Australia at the
time) and he thought I was talking about the town clock.(the pronunciation was
the same for both.
If Japanese people come to work in
Australia, you may not understand the Australian accent and it may help if you
buy an Australian dictionary. Some Australian’s speak with a drawl, slow and
unclear,, while others will have polished British English, that you will find
easy to understand.
One of my greatest memories in Japan
was when I was lecturing on workplace health and fitness at the sports and
fitness faculty of Tokyo University. It was in the early days when I spoke only
a little Japanese. I gave the lecture in English and German as there were some
German students there. As I spoke my lecture was translated into Japanese for
the local students to understand.
This also reminded me of the absolute
enthusiasm that they have in the USA for new ideas and concepts. I was invited
to speak at Virginia State University on workplace health and fitness in
Europe. Then I was invited by about five other American universities to speak
on the same topic, so enthusiastic were the Americans.
Very useful site for business
etiquette in different countries
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Country/default.aspx
http://www.austrade.gov.au/China-Doing-business/default.aspx
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Republic-of-Korea-Doing-business/default.aspx
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Country/default.aspx
