Oidashibeya – Japanese Purgatory
Employees are typically placed in a room, often windowless...
Japanese business keywords
Honne and Tatemae
My biggest concern about including honne and tatemae when explaining Japanese culture to non-Japanese is that it makes it sound like Japanese have a unique propensity to be liars...
Power harassment – Japanese workplace bullying
For many Japanese, the only kind of management style they have ever experienced is one in which subordinates are treated harshly and no complaints are tolerated. . This...
When Japanese say “We must confirm”—what does this mean?
Your Japanese colleagues probably have a pretty good command of English, but they may not be aware of the nuances a seemingly simple sentence such as “We must confirm” may...
Communication Kaizen
If we approached the communication between the Japanese and Americans in our organizations with the same open spirit and common sense, we could increase our communication productivity and avoid misunderstandings....
Otsukaresama deshita: A simple two word phrase in Japanese can say volumes in English
Japanese can compact lots of meaning into a short phrase, whereas it takes a lot more words in English to say the same thing. And that depending on the...
5S in Japan…“A place for everything and everything in its place”
"A messy desk is the sign of a creative mind" This shows a typical American attitude that "neatness" is something divorced from "getting things done" -- quite opposite from the...