The Foreigner in the Office: 4 Tips for Business Success in Japan

I recently returned to the US after more than a decade in Japan, where I led marketing teams for American and Japanese companies. As the only Westerner in the office for the majority of my time in the country, I learned - sink or swim style - about Japanese business culture.?

I was recently asked if I had any tips for doing business in Japan. I pondered that, and eventually settled on the below four points.?

Fair warning - I will not be covering how to correctly hold your business cards or what toilet slippers (a real thing!) are. While important, those “classics” are well covered in etiquette books, travel guides, etc. Let’s go a little deeper.

1)?????The Language Trap (Don’t Fall In)

In the offices where I worked, English speakers were few and far between. It’s easy to rely heavily on those around you who do speak English. Even if your Japanese skills are solid, it’s still “more comfortable” to speak in English if it is your native tongue.?

But consider this - those with business-level English skills are inherently “different” from the average Japanese employee. As a result, using them as a proxy to give you a pulse on what your Japanese sales team thinks, for example, is far from ideal. Plus, those four non-English speakers on the project team? They may have the best ideas, and the strongest internal network. If you are not communicating with them regularly (via a trusted translator or directly), you are almost certainly missing out.?

2)?????Be Sensitive to the Culture (But Not Too Sensitive)

I had been in Japan for about a year when a senior coworker I had built a good relationship with invited me to dinner after work. After a couple beers, he told me something I will never forget:

“Justin, we see you consciously respecting Japanese culture and you actually act quite Japanese. While the effort is appreciated, it’s not why…you’re here. You are foreign, so you can do things we as Japanese people cannot – for example, you can push harder to get something through, you can occasionally steamroll to get movement on a project and get away with it,?because you are not Japanese.”?

I felt like he had lit a firework in my brain. Here I was trying to be respectful and adapt to the local culture of consensus and practice?nemawashi, when they really wanted me to use the “excuse” of being a foreigner on an occasional basis to be more forceful in order to?get things done. After that dinner, I adapted my style to be respectful of local culture, but ready to give things an American-style push when warranted - and it served me well.?

3)?????The Customer is God (Not King)　「お客様は神様」

There is a Japanese equivalent of the Western expression “the customer is king.” It translates directly as “the customer is God.” The difference is important and tangible. Customer expectations are sky high and minor things that might be considered irrelevant by Western customers (e.g. a font change on a product’s cardboard shipping box) may require written pre-notification, and potentially an apology. You may feel like those around you in your office walk on eggshells to ensure the customer (God) is appeased at every turn. You will often hear Japanese people talk about how Japan is “different” and how programs and business models that fly in the West do not fly in Japan. They are not wrong, and my view is that much of this stems from how much power the customer wields. It’s not necessarily a negative, but it is something you should be acutely conscious of and sensitive to, both when dealing internally and externally.?

4)?????Read the Air (It Has a Lot to Say)　「空気を読む」

One more Japanese expression worth considering is “read the air.” This essentially means you should listen beyond what is articulated out loud – watch body language, watch what those around you do and decide how, and if, you should fall in line. A trivial example to illustrate the point: if you visit a customer with Japanese colleagues in a colder month, they?will?take their coats off before they get to the customer’s floor or into the reception area. Why is this? I don’t know – it was never mentioned to me and I was never quite curious enough to ask. The point is that at least in the Tokyo metro area, it is?what is done. As a foreigner, you are not expected to know the intricacies of Japanese cultural norms. So could you get away with being the oddball foreigner with their coat on when you greet the customer? Yes.

But should you??

I’d suggest only playing the “foreigner card” when it’s impactful, necessary, and moves a project forward.?

I hope you found these tidbits helpful. Japan is a beautiful, unique country with a fascinating business culture - I'm sure you will enjoy your time there.

Read the air, and you'll be fine.