The Japanese Negotiation
Japanese Negotiation
When Japanese companies negotiatie, there are barriers in their cultural understanding. Conversely, when the negotiations are with someone who have really different cultural background, cultural misunderstanding certainly exist. To understand the Japanese negotiation style, some knowledge of Japanese cultural tradition is necessary. Japanese society is ethnically homogenous and high-context. Order and harmony are highly respected and regarded as prime virtues of the society. Japanese people not only share a common language and culture, but they also have gradually adopted common social values. Regional and occupational differences do exist, but the country as a whole is more united socially than any western nation.
This Japanese tradition is reflected in company’s negotiation style. One distinctive feature of the Japanese style is step-by-step negotiation. The general practice is that a Japanese negotiation is process-oriented. The negotiation will took long time for about months. Japanese culture places more importance on scial identity and group participation, American culture stresses individualism. U.S. negotiatiors often are critical of the slow-moving Japanese process. As a result, cultural differences may make negotiations between Japanese and U.S. companies more difficult.
This process also happens because Japanese value their process of the negotiation more rather than the result of it and they see negotiation as a start of a long-term relationship. That’s why it’s important to have personal connections and building trust before starting a negotiation. While people of western nation put networking, information and institutions upfront in the negotiations, Japanese people puts group of friends, relatives and close associates. It is crucial to find personal links to the target organization or executive based on personal experience and built trust from there. The links can be hometown or previous business ties. If personal links and
When Japanese companies negotiatie, there are barriers in their cultural understanding. Conversely, when the negotiations are with someone who have really different cultural background, cultural misunderstanding certainly exist. To understand the Japanese negotiation style, some knowledge of Japanese cultural tradition is necessary. Japanese society is ethnically homogenous and high-context. Order and harmony are highly respected and regarded as prime virtues of the society. Japanese people not only share a common language and culture, but they also have gradually adopted common social values. Regional and occupational differences do exist, but the country as a whole is more united socially than any western nation.
This Japanese tradition is reflected in company’s negotiation style. One distinctive feature of the Japanese style is step-by-step negotiation. The general practice is that a Japanese negotiation is process-oriented. The negotiation will took long time for about months. Japanese culture places more importance on scial identity and group participation, American culture stresses individualism. U.S. negotiatiors often are critical of the slow-moving Japanese process. As a result, cultural differences may make negotiations between Japanese and U.S. companies more difficult.
This process also happens because Japanese value their process of the negotiation more rather than the result of it and they see negotiation as a start of a long-term relationship. That’s why it’s important to have personal connections and building trust before starting a negotiation. While people of western nation put networking, information and institutions upfront in the negotiations, Japanese people puts group of friends, relatives and close associates. It is crucial to find personal links to the target organization or executive based on personal experience and built trust from there. The links can be hometown or previous business ties. If personal links and