Just in case you haven’t looked lately, it's a global world out there. And a competitive one. To succeed in this international marketplace, effective communications are paramount. To successfully communicate with interviewers, associates and prospects from other countries, it helps to know a little about how their communications style may be completely different from yours. How you, with only the best intentions, may lose the deal or mis-read the intended message. The following list of basic communications style differences between Americans and Japanese will get you started. Americans can find it difficult to resist talking. They are uncomfortable with silence and move quickly (many times too quickly) to fill in the quiet with meaningless words. Japanese are just the opposite. They are quite comfortable with silence, believe actions have more credibility than words, and that it is better to talk too little than too much. And they won’t appreciate your giving in temptation to embellish your background or your experience.
“Get to the point.” “Say what you mean.” “Stop beating around the bush.” These are common idioms that illustrate the American tendency to be direct. In contrast, the Japanese prefer indirection and ambiguity. They don’t like to say no and may respond to a request they won’t or can’t fulfill with words like “it is difficult” or “perhaps”. They are frequently vague and sometimes trail off sentences leaving them unfinished, letting you draw your own conclusions.
Can there be more than one meaning for sincere? When Americans are sincere, they are meticulous about telling the truth, without pretense or any intention to deceive. When Japanese are sincere, they believe they have met any and all obligations to maintain harmonious relationships.
“The whole truth and nothing but the truth” exemplifies the American view that truth is absolute and does not depend on circumstances. Truth for me is the same as truth for you. The Japanese view of truth is quite different. They believe that circumstances and obligations to others define truth. Preserving your personal harmony is most important to them, so they may give you an answer that they believe will maintain that harmony.
“If they can’t make eye contact, they can’t be trusted” is a common American method of deciding whether an individual is worth their trust. Japanese, however, believe it is rude to make and hold eye contact. So when your Japanese prospect is looking fixedly at your tie, he’s not showing signs of untrustworthiness or critiquing your knotting technique; he's simply being polite.
“Yes means yes.” Or does it? So does nodding or “uh huh”. To the American, these words or cues mean that the listener agrees with you or that you are making progress with your side of the story. But when a Japanese listener nods, the meaning is only that you have been heard. A Japanese nod is similar, indicating listening only, not agreement. When you are listening to a Japanese speaker, it's important that you nod occasionally, indicating that you are paying attention.
The concept of saving face is important to the Japanese. They do their best to avoid disharmony, embarrassment and confrontation. Objective criticism is something that most Americans can take, but Japanese have difficulty separating the criticism of action or behavior from the person. In conversations with Japanese, try to avoid a direct "no" to a request. Try, instead, words like "it may be difficult" to allow your colleague to save face.
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