Doing Business in Japan
- Overcoming Cultural Difference Toshikata “Toshi” Amino
Executive Vice President (Retired)
Honda of America Mfg., Inc.
Visiting Professor, St. Andrews University,
Osaka, Japan
How to Make Your First Meeting
with Japanese Company
Successful?
• “Be Prepared” like Boy Scouts
• Chinese Proverb 知彼知己者百戦不殆
“Know your enemy, know yourself, then
you never loose your battle”.
Preparation
Study thoroughly about the company which you are going to deal
with
• Company history
• Corporate value and culture
• Corporate leadership and organizational
structure
• What they are proud of
• Their unique technology, Market penetration
Preparation
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Know their weak points
Problems which they are currently facing
Their obsolete technology
Loosing market
Financial weakness
Their current products and services
Some actions needed
Buy their products or service and analyze them to
find their strong points and weak points
Preparation (Continued)
• Visit their retailer if available and ask their
opinions
• Meet customers to get their feedback
Rehearsal
Attention to the Detail
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Team play
Who is the chief presenter?
Who add comments?
Who answer to what kind of questions from them?
Time keeper
Seeing is believing
Charts, samples, audio/visual material and
equipment
Presentation
• Try not to be too fancy
Fortune 500, Sales revenue, number of
employees
• Focus to the substance (What kind of
benefit we can bring to you)
Technology, products, services, quality,
Consumer opinions
Presentation
• Ask some intelligent questions to give them a
chance to be involved in your presentation
• Let them ask you a question to which you need to
make a home work for them.
• For example
“Do you have an academic research report
About this technology?
“Yes, we are happy to send it to you once we go
back home” (Follow-up)
Building Trust First
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For example : Meeting
Try not to go into a hard business talk soon.
Friendly, informal introductory chatting is
Appropriate
Prepare some topics such as your first
impression of Tokyo, last night sushi dinner
However don’t spend too much time for just
a chatting. They are busy.
Typical Decision Making
Process in Japanese Company
After your presentation
• Careful and thorough study about your
presentation at staff level
• Departmental examination to come up with
department level consensus
• Presentation to higher level (Board members)
• Approval by CEO
Usually very time consuming. Be patient
Language Barrier
• Better have your own professional
interpreter.
• Get your interpreter in your rehearsal to
make him/her familiar with your
• Technical terminology and products
• Don’t rely too much to your own employee
who claims Japanese language capability
Thank you for your listening
• Any question?
• My e-mail address
aminousjpn@aol.com