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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
How does one say "no" in Japanese? The truth is, this word does not exist in the Japanese language. Instead, an alternative vocabulary allows people to understand that a certain request cannot be implemented. For example, the phrase Chotto Musukashii - "it's a little difficult" - is an equivalent to the word "no" in English . The reason for the Japanese language's lack of what we consider a basic communication expression is directly related to the difficulties American businessmen face when embarking on joint economic ventures in the "Land of the Rising Sun." In what way are US-Japanese business agreements impacted by Japanese communication? Overwhelmingly, the answer is: every way. For centuries, Japan 's geopolitical isolation has produced a culturally-sophisticated and homogenously-distinctive society, considerably different from other countries in Northeastern Asia and elsewhere in the world. Japan has established itself as an exceptional nation with a strong cultural identity that evokes a sentiment of pride among its people. These characteristics and Japan 's past tendency to avoid contact with the outside world for hundreds of years has made this country and its population mysterious and perplexing in western eyes.
With the global economy acting as a catalyst for economic cooperation between the United States and Japan , cultural gaps soon became the key restraints on US-Japanese business negotiations. The very existence of the Japanese word gais - the foreign company - demonstrates how Japanese history, culture, and national pride hold a vital place in its society. Moli Eldar, an Israeli woman who is a former attaché to the Israeli embassy in Tokyo, Japan, has written Samuraim Ba-halifot Ha-derekh Ha-yapanit Le-asakim ( Samurais in Suits - The Japanese Way of Business), a book in which she offers an understanding of the complex Japanese culture and behavior, particularly under business circumstances. From the opposite perspective, T. W. Kang, a Japanese native and director of a management consulting firm, provides, in Gaishi: The Foreign Company in Japan, an insider's perspective on Japanese companies' views of American firms entering the Japanese market, and on the difficulties that surface because of considerable cultural differences. Kang's comments help to broaden and clarify the issues behind the two societies' mutual obstacle of cross-cultural differences. Another individual who has gained extensive experience with the Japanese corporate sector is Robert M. March, an Australian whose fifteen-year residence in Japan inspired his book The Japanese Negotiator: Subtlety and Strategy Beyond Western Logic in which he incorporates his own view on the appropriate way of interacting with Japanese negotiation teams and understanding their elaborate traditional business behavior. Overcoming cross-cultural differences, however, can be an objective that is much easier to accomplish than some might think, and increasing intercultural education will be needed to expedite the business negotiations in the twenty-first century. This can be achieved by seminars and consulting sessions held at American working environments, with Japan's unique culture and business etiquette taught by experienced personnel with either years of work experience or residence within the Japanese society, who can convey their knowledge to junior American international marketing employees. This will give employees the confidence and preparation they need to become more interactive with Japanese businessmen as well as help close the cultural gap. In his essay "The Age of Social Transformation," Peter Drucker forsaw the rise of a new class of what he calls "knowledge workers" and their managers, whose skills are technological, and whose education non-traditional and ongoing. Advanced and specialized knowledge, he argues, will be required "well past the age of formal schooling and increasingly, perhaps, through educational processes that do not center on the traditional school" (60). Although Drucker did not include cultural education in his proposals, it is the kind of non-traditional education for which he anticipated a need.