Doing Business With Japan: Successful Strategies for Intercultural Communication (Latitude 20 Books (Paperback))

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Summary: Quick and Informative Read
Review: Interesting and quick read. A broad and helpful guide for business or social interaction with Japanese nationals. Surveys typical cultural characteristics and philososphies driving them. Proposes a number of situations that might arise and provides suggestions regarding acceptable etiquette. Excellent for avoiding cultural insults.

Rating:
Summary: Do's & Don'ts Not Enough for Intercultural Communication
Review: Japan is one of the largest economic superpowers. With skyscrapers and American fast-food chains, a first glance of a city may provide the impression that Japan is truly westernized. Yet, despite the appearances, Japan has remained "uniquely Japanese" in many aspects, which makes many uninformed Western businesspeople in Japan confused and even frustrated. Doing Business with Japan: Successful Strategies for Intercultural Communication provides a quick overview of Japanese history and social structures, and explains the meanings of Japanese customs that are typically seen in business occasions in Japan. Nishiyama covers a wide range of topics, from a typical living situation in Japan to conflict resolution in Japanese companies.

Kazuo Nishiyama attempts to guide American businesspeople that are planning to do business in Japan with a better understanding of Japanese business customs. Familiar with both Japanese and American customs, the author approaches various aspects of Japanese culture that many Americans businesspeople question, such as establishing business relationships with the Japanese. He also includes a glossary of Japanese terms and concepts that provides an easy reference for busy businesspeople.

The risk of this book, however, is that it can read more as a quick guidebook for American businesspeople to come to terms with Japanese unwritten business rules, rather than as a book to learn successful intercultural communication techniques to conduct business in Japan. Nishiyama includes few descriptions and explanations of American customs. His book does not provoke any self-awareness among the reader. Therefore, American businesspeople will tend to continue thinking that Japan is especially unique and they are normal, which makes mutual understanding more difficult. Also, he often advises Americans to adjust to Japanese customs, such as sending gifts, which might appear ethically wrong to Americans. In order to establish a long-term relationship between people with different customs, this one way adjustment will be problematic at some point. Therefore, it would be desirable if Nishiyama could show how to search for a common ground between the cultures.

For those who are very new to Japan and need "do's and don'ts" in order to avoid mistakes in the beginning, this book is useful to grasp the general rules for doing business in Japan. But for those who are more interested in Japanese culture or want to establish long-term relationships in Japan, this book falls short in explaining all of the complexities of the Japanese culture that are crucial to understand for effective intercultural communication.