(by Olivier van Beneden, founder of JCO) In my 20 years of experience delivering training workshops, I’ve worked with participants from diverse cultural backgrounds, including Japanese, Europeans, and Americans. These years of hands-on experience have taught me a fascinating lesson: the approach to learning varies significantly depending on the audience. One metaphor captures this perfectly:…
When working with Japan, it is always useful to know when your colleagues will be out of office. The country has a total of 16 public holidays in a year compared to 10 holidays in Europe and the US on average. In that sense, the higher number in Japan is a viable way to ensure…
Almost everyone knows Sony’s Aibo “robot dog”, whose revival in 2018 marked not only a technological milestone but also a significant cultural touchstone. Designed to replicate the experience of pet ownership, Aibo has found a special place in the hearts of its owners, especially in Japan. The introduction of Sony’s “foster service” program has added…
In a previous post we learned how New Year is celebrated in Japan and how to say “Happy New Year” in Japanese. One of those greetings included yoroshiku onegai shimasu. It is one of the most common expressions in Japan. If there is one sentence in Japanese you should remember, it should be this one.…
In this article let us take a look at a question that comes up in our JCO workshops almost every time: “Why are the Japanese so pedantic, trying to plan everything 150%? Sometimes you just have to wait and see how it turns out!” Of course, there are various factors that contribute to the widely…
“Even monkeys sometimes fall from trees”, as goes the Japanese expression. Despite over 30 years of working experience with the country, this expression came to me as I realized that I had made a cardinal mistake during a kick-off meeting with Japanese clients. First things first, let’s gain a grasp of what this expression really…
Very often we are asked how to address Japanese business partners or colleagues correctly. Here are a few tips, which of course apply equally to written correspondence as well as to conversations. As a rule of thumb, in Japanese business life, the surname name is always followed by the honorific suffix “san” (meaning “dear” or…
The coronavirus COVID-19 has shaken up the way we work. We now know more about Zoom or MS Team applications than we did a few months ago and have all been invited to an “online apero” at this point. As managing director of a company specialized in multi-cultural training to improve business efficiency when working…
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…
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…
