Free Resources

Japanese companies like to gather lots of information

The unquenchable thirst for information

Articles, Japanese business, Japanese society by Pernille Rudlin

A constant niggle I hear from people who aren’t Japanese who work in Japanese companies is the sheer quantity of questions, often on seemingly irrelevant details, that they have to...

Does videoconferencing work?

Articles, Cross-cultural communication, Meetings by Pernille Rudlin

When it comes to communicating with Japanese counterparts, video conferencing is still no replacement for face-to-face meetings....

A truly global HQ – where Japan is just one of the regions?

Articles, Global management by Pernille Rudlin

Finding the hidden value in meetings

Articles, Japanese business keywords, Meetings by Pernille Rudlin

It may be that Japanese business people are better at finding value in a seemingly pointless meeting than many Western business people....

customer service differs across cultures

Diverse societies have equally diverse ideas about good service

Articles, Customer service, Diversity by Pernille Rudlin

Why are the Japanese more considerate of other people compared to the British or indeed many other nationalities?...

Why Japanese love charts, graphs, and diagrams

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

The other day I was teaching a seminar on Working Effectively with Americans to a group of Japanese expatriates from a major electronics manufacturer’s U.S. subsidiary. We were discussing...