Have you ever tried to brainstorm with Japanese colleagues? If you did, you might have been disappointed by the lack of participation by your colleagues. You might have thought “I can’t believe they are top class engineers and they don’t even have any ideas.” When you ask Japanese colleagues to brainstorm, you are asking them…
We often hear that Japan has a culture of shame (vs. guilt in the West) This affects many areas of work and life, as to how you are perceived by your neighbors, your colleagues and your clients is extremely important. The focus of this article on Japanese business culture is how this concept of shame…
Let´s start with a short question on the use of emoji. Like many things that surround us, emoji originated in Japan and can be translated as 絵, e = “picture” plus 文字, moji = “letter”. They were developed for mobile messaging at the end of the 1990ies. (here is a comparison of how they looked…
(translation from JCO article in Japanese) The Japanese government has launched a new work-style reform in Japan as of April 1st, 2019 which steers the Japanese labour market towards a more globally aligned approach to work and efficiency. One of the goals appears to be to reduce overly long working hours. It is an interesting…
In our blog, we answer some of the questions we regularly receive during our seminars. “I had a teleconference with my Japanese colleagues in Japan. We suggested planning for the project and they all agreed to it. However, soon after, they started questioning everything and were not doing what we had agreed they would do.…
Japan is notorious for its strong emphasis on “humans as resources”: due to its lack of natural resources, Japan instead focuses on forming highly educated and skilled citizens. Education is perceived as not only defining and embodying many Japanese values but also as a considerable determinant of careers and futures. Let us examine the Japanese…
We are happy to announce that Japan Consulting Office (JCO) has received the “1st BEST Supplier” and “Highest Appreciated Training Institute” award from Mitsubishi Turbocharger and Engine for the second time. This prestigious recognition is the result of the high quality of our training programs, our practical approach and the visible change in behavior following…
All people who work regularly with Japanese colleagues have probably experienced this: their level of spoken English is usually not that great. Furthermore, they seem to have a very particular way of pronouncing things: “elevator” becomes ‘erebeetaa’, “invoice” becomes ‘inboisu’, “contract” becomes ‘kontorakuto’, etc. There are several reasons for this, and you will see that…
Japanese participants in JCO seminars very often give following complaint: “Staff in Europe/the US seldom apologize but are always looking for excuses instead.” Let’s take a closer look at the cultural background of this rather unflattering perception of Western staff and colleagues. As Japan is very densely populated it is a necessity to defuse potential…
Cross-cultural misunderstandings often are based on differing cultural values. These differences can very often be seen in the workplace where they manifest in behavior that does not seem to make sense from the viewpoint of the other culture. When we’re speaking about Western business culture, one trait that is very highly regarded is reliability because…
