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Dialogues@RU is published
annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume 4
Fall 2005
Business Negotiation Served On A Sushi Platter
By Annat T. Katz
Complete loyalty to the master, extraordinary skill with a sword, justice, self-control, harmony, courtesy, ambiguity, and honor are among the highly-valued virtues of the Samurai. Although loyalty and skill are among the most imperative virtues, harmony and ambiguity are the ones more influential to the way Japanese do business. These represent the basis of understanding Japanese Samurai mentality of ancient times as well as that of modern times (Eldar 40). If one wishes to understand the root of Japan 's "mysterious" cultural behavior, one needs to explore the history and its influences on the contemporary Japanese people.
One of the most honored Samurai principles practiced in modern Japanese corporate society is the effort to maintain harmony, which is derived from Buddhist influence and is one of the practiced ideologies in Japan . The Japanese learn early that vagueness is a virtue (March 15). They will maintain a sense of harmony in their efforts to avoid confrontation at all costs. Here lies one of the most pronounced differences in communication styles between the two cultures: the Japanese prefer to communicate indirectly, often beating around the bush rather than in a direct manner (Kumayama 12). The reason for this is that being straightforward is seen as a serious character fault in their culture. The Japanese saying, "the mouth is the source of all troubles," is a simple example for their avoidance of being direct. My father once gave me an example of this act of avoidance through one of his business experiences. During one of his business trips to Japan , my father walked through the streets of Tokyo and asked a passerby for the time. The young Japanese man was extremely surprised by the stranger's direct inquiry, which seemed to place him in an awkward situation. The young man, however, did not say he could not tell the time because he did not have a watch. Instead, he began looking at the sky, spoke of the sun's position and tried to make spontaneous speculations of the hour, demonstrating how important it is for the Japanese to avoid a direct response. In this case, the reply was especially important to avoid since it involved negativity which is perceived as an insult in Japanese culture.
The constant desire to maintain a harmonious atmosphere is one of the Japanese cornerstones of interacting with the surrounding social and working environments. American companies, on the other hand, are motivated by the capitalist "bull and bear" ideas. The "cut to the chase" materialistic approach to the bargaining, selling and buying as fast and forcefully as possible is vital to conducting business. This approach presents a widespread problem to Japanese negotiation teams who are forced to step out of their harmonious comfort zone in order to bargain and argue for their company's economic objectives. Reluctantly, they find themselves in a defensive position. As a result of the Japanese preference to preserve consensus and agreement, non-verbal communications become more pronounced cultural barriers that hinder American and Japanese business negotiations. Therefore, the Japanese would rather handle decision-making unanimously and compromise their own view point than have disharmony and imbalance amongst their team members. All decisions have to be agreed upon by all members, regardless of their ranks. For that reason, discrepancies between the Japanese and Americans should be regarded as nothing more than two different perspectives on a certain issue, and neither of these should be considered to be better or worse than the other. They merely represent two different cultural views on the same procedure, just as marriage, for example, represents a union between two people, and yet is practiced differently in various cultures.