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Turnover in Japanese firms

Articles, HR management, North America by Rochelle Kopp

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American employees of Japanese firms tend to measure their career progress against their peers in American firms and thus expect more rapid advancement. An adjustment Japanese firms will need...

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Why do many Japanese businesspeople live apart from their families? Tanshinfunin.

Articles, HR management, Japanese business by Rochelle Kopp

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When assigning an employee to a transfer, whether it be within Japan or to someplace abroad, Japanese companies typically do not ask employees “Is now a convenient time for you...

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Career planning in the U.S. and Japan

Articles, HR management, North America by Rochelle Kopp

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Japanese employees have little control over where they are assigned in their companies… Americans will take career planning into their own hands, deciding what they like to do and what...

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Americans paint a picture with words…Japanese tell the story with pictures

Articles, Japanese business, Japanese business keywords by Rochelle Kopp

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Many Americans discover that using more graphics is effective when working with Japanese. Do Americans find this approach more convincing? Or do they accept the need to use...

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Saihatsu boshi – “Those who forget the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them”

Articles, Japanese business, Japanese business keywords by Rochelle Kopp

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Japanese are often mystified as to why many Americans seem to not be interested in learning from past problems to prevent future ones…quite a contrast from the way many Japanese...

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Mi ni tsukeru –Easier done than said in Japan

Articles, Japanese business, Japanese business keywords by Rochelle Kopp

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When a movement is repeated over time, a long-term muscle memory is created for that task; eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort…...

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Madoguchi – Your Japanese “go to” person

Articles, Japanese business, Japanese business keywords by Rochelle Kopp

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In Japanese firms, for any project there is always a designated person that people are asked to deal with, and that person is referred to as the madoguchi, which literally...

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Overcome kishotenketsu to improve your communication with Americans

Articles, Cross-cultural communication, Japanese business keywords by Rochelle Kopp

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For Americans who are used to a more straightforward style, kishotenketsu can be very confusing…It can be hard to follow what Japanese have to say as they go on and...

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Kikubari – the Japanese art of paying attention to others

Articles by Rochelle Kopp

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You ascertain the needs of people by paying careful attention to them, and understand their desires before they even need to voice them…to comport yourself in such a way that...

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Ho-ren-so: “managing up” Japanese style

Articles, Japanese business keywords, Working with Japanese by Rochelle Kopp

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Ho-ren-so is quite different from this typical American working style. The initial instruction given to the subordinate tends to be vaguer and more general, particularly if the subordinate is...

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