[wbeachcomber]

Anyone encounter this in their work or travels? This is exactly the opposite of how I run meetings and contribute to meetings.

http://www.worldbusinessculture.com/...-in-Japan.html

Meetings are often preceded by long, non-business polite conversation which could cover such topics as mutual contacts, the merits of your company, Japanese food etc. Do not become exasperated by this use of your time, as it is an essential element of the relationship-building process. Show your impatience at your peril.

The concept of Wa, which is probably best described by the English word harmony, lies at the heart of the Japanese approach to meetings. Although it is important to search for a solution, this must not be achieved at the expense of disturbing the peace. No individual will wish to proffer a strong opinion, which might cause some form of confrontation and therefore affect Wa.

Japanese decisions are reached through a process of consensus-building meetings, each of which is concerned with the preservation of Wa. This means that the decision-making process can seem very long and drawn out. Patience is essential in these situations, as to show impatience could have an adverse effect on the all-important Wa.

[sposteTipsKage]

Good link!

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/reso...-profiles.html

[Arratherimi]

pretty standard, the real business happens at the bar after the meeting.

[Seasmillets]

pretty standard, the real business happens at the bar after the meeting.

My kind of people . . .

[netamargr]

I've encountered meetings similar to this in China with one of our Manufactures in Hang Zhou. we had a brief business meeting "maybe and hour" then he insisted we go on a stroll around West Lake, we would talked about Chinese culture, the lake and its history ect. ect. then when to a big dinner with great food he even bought us silk robes and expensive tea and set us up in a beautiful hotel.

[Natashasuw]

Good link!

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/reso...-profiles.html

This article clarified something for me. I knew that many cultures did not approve of children looking adults in the eye, but I suppose I never considered that staring into someone's eyes, especially a senior, would be disrespectful in traditional Japan.
A hachidan was giving me advice through an interpreter last year and I remember that something seemed awkward about our interaction. It was my understanding that when an interpreter is translating you should be focused on the original speaker rather than the translator (at least this is how it is with ASL situations). I made sure to look at the hachidan directly during his explanations. However, I could tell that something was amiss.

Does anyone have any suggestions for handling this sort of situation in the future?

[Siliespiriulk]

...
Does anyone have any suggestions for handling this sort of situation in the future?

It's fairly simple. Be yourself. Be polite. And where possible, observe closely what everyone else is doing and take your cues from that. Japanese culture is about building consensus, but the consensus is not achieved by the senior person telling everyone what to do. It is left up to people themselves strive to find out what the consensus is and adjust their behaviour to fit. It's much like how at the beginning of a match you are not given the instruction to step into the shiaijo. You and your opponent must come to a consensus without using words about when to start the match and step in.

The rules are not written anywhere, but that does not mean there are no rules. Actually the more I think about it, the more I realise that my native culture also has a whole lot of unwritten rules also. They're just different ones to the Japanese.

b

[lionsiy]

Good point, Ben! Do tell. Maybe we all have these invisible rules in our cultures.

[Quigoxito]

This will solve all issues!
Alcohol, especially good single malt whiskey, is always an appreciated gift.

[sStevenRitziI]

Well a good example is keigo, or polite language. Now sure Japanese has a lot more variations in words for different levels of etiquette than a lot of languages. But when you think about it, in English, even without polite and casual versions of the second person pronoun*, we still would take a lot more words to ask someone who has higher social status to do something for us than we would use for a subordinate: "I was wondering if you could possibly see your way clear to considering..." as opposed to "Do it!"

*Actually Engish does have a formal second person pronoun but we don't use it anymore: thou.

There are cultural differences too. In Australia, generally speaking, we like to get onto to using first names asap, even, or perhaps especially, at the upper echelons of business. We would almost never call a superior 'sir' as seems to be common in the US. Not even the General Manager. Certainly not your own father! So you know Japanese culture is already going to be so different to home that you expect to start from scratch with everything.

And then again there are Japanese who are genuinely frustrated with the slow pace of change, with the maze of social obligations, and with totally inflexible, one-size-fits-all education. Even in kendo pedagogy, some Japanese professors are re-examining the traditional, non-verbal, non-analytical approach to teaching kendo. They wonder that maybe it doesn't have to be so holistic, so intuitive all the time: maybe different people need to be taught differently. I'm sure the current decline in kendo's popularity in Japan has started some people thinking along these lines.

One difference between AU and JP I did find really interesting, and which all my colleagues were amazed by as well, was the different attitudes to technology in education. In Aus, for better or worse, it seems Education Depts can't integrate IT in to the classroom fast enough or broadly enough. In my state we are installing something called the Ultranet, which is a fancy name for an intranet linking all the information in all public schools built with a social networking interface. The Govt has promised a 1:1 computer to student ratio in public schools. Most high schools have wireless network coverage throughout, etc, etc. In Japan it's the opposite. Teachers don't all have their own laptops, it's more like 1:20. The ones there are are often 10+ years old. There's no wireless network. Timetabling is still worked out with coloured wooden blocks in a big rack. Students go to the library to use an old PC for looking up the catalogue, ratio about 1:200. No interactive whiteboards, no online Parent-Teacher Interview scheduling, the list goes on. The Japanese seem highly suspicious about using computers to change the way things are done in the classroom. And part of me admires them for that. After all, you can't really alter that much about what schools are supposed to do. IT often fools us into thinking otherwise. OTOH coming from my world, the Japanese situation seems to be they're at the other extreme, the IT Dark Ages (c. 1990). Which is weird if you've been to Japan lately: 12MP cameras in phones? *Yawn*!

OTOH I can't help thinking that the way the Japanese are about this small issue is a bit like how they were with technology in general before Admiral Perry arrived. I wonder if there will be a similar 'revolution' in Japanese education in the future. Or maybe we will go back to using pen and paper when we get conclusive data showing that kids who use screens to receive all their knowledge are less well-educated than their parents and grandparents were.

Sorry for the education rant. I'm probably off the topic. Perhaps in the wrong forum too. b

[incizarry]

*Actually Engish does have a formal second person pronoun but we don't use it anymore: thou.

Thou wasn't formal. It was singular, in contrast to the plural ye (you in the accusative and dative cases). Due to the influence of Norman French, the plural became also formal and eventually you became the nominative, replacing ye, as well as the general singular, replacing thou and its other declensions. Thou seems formal to most modern speakers because the main place is survives is in certain Christian groups, where it is commonly, but not exclusively, used to refer to God.

To keep this mildly on task, the Japanese omae (お前) went the other way. It was originally honorific, but is now quite the opposite.

[ConoMadura]

One difference between AU and JP I did find really interesting, and which all my colleagues were amazed by as well, was the different attitudes to technology in education. In Aus, for better or worse, it seems Education Depts can't integrate IT in to the classroom fast enough or broadly enough. In my state we are installing something called the Ultranet, which is a fancy name for an intranet linking all the information in all public schools built with a social networking interface. The Govt has promised a 1:1 computer to student ratio in public schools. Most high schools have wireless network coverage throughout, etc, etc. In Japan it's the opposite. Teachers don't all have their own laptops, it's more like 1:20. The ones there are are often 10+ years old. There's no wireless network. Timetabling is still worked out with coloured wooden blocks in a big rack. Students go to the library to use an old PC for looking up the catalogue, ratio about 1:200. No interactive whiteboards, no online Parent-Teacher Interview scheduling, the list goes on. The Japanese seem highly suspicious about using computers to change the way things are done in the classroom. And part of me admires them for that. After all, you can't really alter that much about what schools are supposed to do. IT often fools us into thinking otherwise. OTOH coming from my world, the Japanese situation seems to be they're at the other extreme, the IT Dark Ages (c. 1990). Which is weird if you've been to Japan lately: 12MP cameras in phones? *Yawn*!

OTOH I can't help thinking that the way the Japanese are about this small issue is a bit like how they were with technology in general before Admiral Perry arrived. I wonder if there will be a similar 'revolution' in Japanese education in the future. Or maybe we will go back to using pen and paper when we get conclusive data showing that kids who use screens to receive all their knowledge are less well-educated than their parents and grandparents were.

Sorry for the education rant. I'm probably off the topic. Perhaps in the wrong forum too. b

I don't know about any other prefectures apart from Kagoshima, but they are starting to roll out some technology in the classroom at the moment. I come from an I.T. background originally so I've had quite a lot of experience in introducing this kind of thing. I remember buying one of the first generation of interactive white boards for one of our meeting rooms, only for nobody to use it. We worked in a 'paperless office' where people continued to print stuff and take it to meetings despite alternatives being available. I checked the security of wireless networks by war driving around town, created a secure wireless network covering an office of about 300 people only to be asked for a 'network cable' by people with wireless capable laptops.

My point is that technology for it's own sake is a total waste of money. If the people using it understand the best ways in which to use the medium then it can be extremely beneficial, however this is often not the case. In Kagoshima, they spent a huge amount of money on big flat screen TVs for each classroom, most of which will hardly be used. Same for the interactive white boards being rolled out at the moment. Most schools have a computer room with pretty average computers and (censored) internet access. Isn't that enough?

I showed a bunch of teachers from the U.K. around Kagoshima not long back, and they all commented on the lack of I.T. equipment. They did leave wondering about the effectiveness of teaching with technology compared to 'old fashioned' methods. They were impressed by 家庭訪問 (home visits by teachers) which surprised me, as I thought they might think it was an invasion of privacy or something.

Anyway I'm rambling on, but I'm all for the use of technology in the classroom as long as it is used effectively and has definite positive results. Rabidly applying new technology left right and center for it's own sake is a waste of tax money.

[Apparpsmose]

Hey, I don't mind the thread drift!