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Misunderstood or misrepresented in Japan culture?
Japanese business culture is wrongly perceived as the biggest
obstacle to starting business in Japan for many foreign
companies thinking of entering the Japanese market.

Many
foreign companies never do start business in Japan (or only
enter the Japanese market through a distributor) simply
because of the misconception, fueled by those infamous myths
of doing business in Japan, that dealing with Japanese business
culture is somehow too risky. Fortunately, Japanese business
culture is not an impenetrable barrier to successful business
in Japan, as proven by the very substantial Japanese market
share enjoyed by Yahoo!, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Chanel, Louis
Vuitton, Tiffany & Co. and many others.
Inevitably Japanese business culture is different to that
of the US or Europe, but the differences do not make it
any more risky to do business in Japan than elsewhere in
the world. In fact, certain aspects of Japan's business
culture, especially the very stable long-term relationships
resulting from the conservative Japanese sense of loyalty
to trusted partners, can be very beneficial for those foreign
companies that understand how to swim with the cultural
tide as opposed to vainly struggling against it.
So just what is Japanese business culture and how is it
different?
- Japanese are doing it for you the customer.
- In the US and Europe, personal service has become
something that people must pay for with tips - in Japan
there is no tipping, personal service is literally 'part
of the service'.
Many foreigners confuse the service aspect of Japanese business
culture noted above as being simply a part of Japanese social
culture, i.e. people are just being polite. Agreed Japanese
society is very polite but all of the people noted above
were doing their job when you encountered them - a big part
of their job is keeping you happy and in Japan that entails
good customer service. Unfortunately many foreign company
executives doing business in Japan for the first time, do
not recognize the differences noted above - primarily because
when traveling they are 'off duty' - they consider their
first encounter with Japanese business culture to be when
they arrive at a Japanese customer or distributor's office
for their first business meeting.