The Key to Doing Business in Japan

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The key to doing business in Japan is establishing strong relationships. According to Haru Yamada, a linguistics professor at the University of Westminster in London and the author of Different Games, Different Rules, “Present yourself as a trustworthy person who is sensitive to Japanese interests. Ask some non-sales related questions about their company. By shifting your focus from the product to the relationship, you will consider it the most interesting part of doing business and don’t consider it an effort at all. It’s part of figuring out who you’re dealing with, and how familiar with the West you counterpart is. Japanese people are deeply proud of traveling. Get them to tell you about their trips. Then you can start to gauge their familiarity [with the West] and get a good sense of how good they are at telling you what they’re thinking, directly, as opposed to the indirection that the Japanese are famous for. The Japanese are like emotional bonds with people.” When doing business in Japan, they are very formal. Yet there are some aspects of business etiquette in Japan that are similar to those of the United States. When in a business meeting, the Japanese expect for you to wait to be seated because they have a custom on which party sits on which side of the table. It is also important to take a lot of notes from the beginning of the business meeting to the end. A huge “must have” in the Japanese business society is carrying a business card, meishi. You must present the card with both hands to the most senior member and so on down the corporate ladder. It is considered rude if you put the card in your pocket or wallet. You must keep it on the table in front of you during the meeting. If you were to receive a business card, yo...

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...es include entrepreneurship, freedom, harmony, and innovation. It has been found that cultural values play a huge role in the companies organizational performance evaluations. “Previous studies have suggested that companies in Japan with a corporate management philosophy are more likely to show higher corporate performance than those without such a philosophy because a corporate management philosophy might contribute to originality and uniqueness (Miyata, 2003, 2004)”. Other studies show that when the market is tumultuous, it is harder to create a good corporate performance (Ginn, 2006; Grewal and Tansuhaj, 2001). For long-term performance, Japan often turns to their value orientations. Since the Japanese often include entrepreneurship in their value orientations, they believe that it will lead to innovations in the future, therefore affecting long-term performance.

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