When wanting to convince someone Japanese to do something in accordance with American customs or commonly-accepted practices, I find that it’s useful to assume that they are not necessarily familiar...
The Japanese excel at indirect communication, they do it though extreme tact and understatement, rather than irony. When they listen to Americans, the Japanese tend to believe our words and...
This style difference between Americans and Japanese often causes Americans to have difficulty determining what Japanese want to say…The Japanese assume that there is shared background information that put both...
Often Japanese sit quietly in the meeting and do not offer their opinions...
Just because people are debating a point intensively or excitedly does not necessarily mean that harmful conflict is occurring...
What seems like a logical way of explaining things in Japanese may not necessarily seem logical in English. By switching to a more natural English discourse style, Japanese can...
It is hard to overestimate this aspect of Japanese culture, particularly since it differs so completely from the experience of most Westerners. For a great many generations, the Japanese have...
Japanese executives often complain that their American colleagues are “bad at organizing data.” According to one Japanese manager who is a key decision-maker in his company’s operations in Japan,...
Although Japanese seldom intentionally try to hide things from American colleagues, they often inadvertently create that impression through various habits and communication style differences. By adopting practices and techniques...
There is a tremendous linguistic gap between the Japanese language and English....
