Business Culture in Japan: A Case Study

This essay evaluates the business culture in Japan through a case study of a young woman expanding her business. It discusses Japanese business etiquette, cross-cultural communication, and the Hofstede model of culture. The essay provides suggestions for making a favorable first impression and increasing the success of future business arrangements.

Communication in Business
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Assessment 1: Individual Cultural Essay
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Date:

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The primary purpose of the essay is to evaluate the various business aspects related with the
topic of business culture. The paper will introduce a case reveals where Mary, a young woman,
has a small business and desires to expand the business in Japan. However, it is essential for
Mary to know about the business culture of Japan to get success in expanding the business. The
Hofstede model of culture will be used for cross-cultural communication in various areas. It will
also provide suggestions to Mary so that she could increase the success of the meeting as well as
business arrangements for the future. The steps will also be described that Mary takes for making
an impression on her first visits to Japan.
The business culture critically reveals that Mary and her parent’s experiments with various new
recipes of sauces or condiments. Hence, Mary started a small business in which she
manufactures a variety of pastes, jams, sauces, and pickles. She owns a shop named ‘The Aroma
Shop,' and it uses organic ingredients for its products. Moreover, Mary desires to increase her
business in Japan. She fixed a meeting with a 55-year-old man, Mr. Moro who is the manager of
a famous store in Japan. Mary has to fly to Tokyo for the meeting and but she is not familiar with
the business culture of Japan. Hence, Mary is feeling concerned about the first meeting. At first,
she should know about the Japanese business culture.
Business etiquette refers to a set of behavior or manners which are needed in the profession
(Adhami, Giudici and Martinazzi, 2018). It is essential for the business because it helps to
understand the foreign associates and foster better communication within the office as well as
outside the office. Japanese Business Etiquette is crucial at the first meeting of the parties for
conducting a new business (Dunn, 2016). Etiquette in Japan includes politeness, good manners,
formal, sensitivity to others and visible. The obvious feature of Japanese business etiquette
disturbs personal behavior at the time of the business meeting (Jia et al., 2016). There are vital

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factors of professional etiquette in Japan that influence the executives of the foreign company
such as Japanese business cards, business meetings, and personal habits along with business
attire. There are ten guidelines of Japanese business etiquette such as wait until the host says to
have a seat before sitting down, seating arrangements by rank, take off the coat before enter to a
building, learn formal greetings as well as closings for business communication, get on the
elevator in an accurate order, knock three times before entering a room, leave the card of the
counterpart on the desk, wait for the tea until they take a sip of tea, place your card below their
card, and bow until the doors close entirely (Shortall and Kharrazi, 2017).
Following are the steps that Mary could take to make a favorable first impression when she visits
Japan and meets Mr. Moro:
 Mary will wear a formal dress for the meeting and display a conservative manner in front
of Mr. Moro
 At first, Mary will greet Mr. Moro and then, bowed with clasped hands to show respect
because bowing is crucial in Japan
 She has to wait before sitting down until Mr. Moro will say to take a seat
 Mary will thank Mr. Moro and bow slightly when receiving the business card and keep
the business card on the top of the table and she should hold the cards with both hands
 She should follow the lead of Mr. Moro and do as he does in the meeting
 She should not use the numbers four and nine as these numbers are deliberated unlucky
in the culture of Japan.
Cross-cultural communication is essential for doing business in another country. A lack of
awareness about the rules of culture and communication behaviors fails business relations (Bird
and Mendenhall, 2016). The Hofstede model of culture is used to represent the areas of potential

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cross-cultural miscommunication in Japan while doing business. A structure used for
multicultural communication which was advanced by Geert Hofstede is known as Hofstede
model of culture. The model explains the effects of a culture of the society on the social beliefs
of the members (Pakdil and Leonard, 2017).
The Hofstede model contains five dimensions which help in comparing the two cultures. The
five dimensions are as follows:
Power distance – It refers to the level to which lower class people agree the unequal distribution
of power. Inequality, as well as power in this dimension, are observed from the followers. A high
power distance indicates the acceptance of inequality and power as well as shows respect for
rank by the culture (Mazanec et al., 2015). A low power distance denotes that the society where
the organizational structure is flat. Japan has medium power distance of 54 as compared to the
country of Mary which signifies that the culture decision-making is less democratic. All the
decisions should be confirmed by the ranked persons and then, top management. Hence, Mary
should know the decision-making styles of Japanese culture to prevent cross-cultural
miscommunication. Japan is a hierarchical as well as a meritocratic society where everyone is
equal (Stahl and Tung, 2015).
Individualism vs. collectivism – The dimension denotes to the degree to which identity or
interests of an individual succeeds over the identity of the group. In the dimension of
individualism, the persons have to look after their family and themselves only whereas in
collectivism, people who belong to the groups that take care of them in return of loyalty. Japan
has scored 46 in the individualism dimension that means it scored more in collectivism (Boley,
Maruyama and Woosnam, 2015). Hence, Mary should be loyal to the company because people
of Japan are very loyal to their work.

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Masculinity vs. femininity - Masculinity refers to the fondness of society for heroism,
achievement or rewards for achievement while femininity states to the choice for modesty,
caring, and cooperation (Wang and He, 2018). Japan scores 95 on the masculinity dimension
which means it is the masculine society. Mary has to face difficulty in competing with masculine
norms. In Japan, it is challenging for women to climb up the business ladders with high
masculinity.
Uncertainty avoidance index – It discusses to the degree to which a culture tolerate the ambiguity
of the future. Japan has high uncertainty avoidance at 92 that means it always ready to face the
uncertain situation or risk-factors (Tseng, 2019). The country makes strict rules and regulations
to minimize the uncertainties. Hence, the foreign business people who wish to conduct business
in Japan has to face difficulty in realizing the changes from their culture. Lack of awareness
causes miscommunication of cross-culture among the people.
Long-term orientation - It refers to the relationship between past and future challenges. Japan has
scored 88 in this dimension that means it is a long-term oriented society. Japan focus on the
future to achieve long-term success. People in Japan focus in a high rate of investment, high
capital rate and growth of market share which means to serve the society at large (Furusawa and
Brewster, 2018). Hence, people of a foreign country who wants to do business in Japan need to
follow the same rules as the companies of Japan follow.
Following are the things that Mary requires to do to increase the success of the meeting and
future business arrangements:
Mary should be polite and treat everyone with respect in the meeting which helps her in future
while conducting the business. It has also been suggested to Mary that she should not write or

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fold the business cards and treat the card as a part of the host of the meeting. She should keep in
mind that the Japanese do not prefer to shake hands. Hence, she should not shake hands with Mr.
Moro. To make future business arrangements, Mary should focus on a high rate of investment to
achieve long-term success in Japanese business culture. She should be aware of the risk factors
and be prepared to overcome the uncertainties. Mary should let the counterpart to explain
everything about the business without doing any misbehavior. She could ask various questions
related to her business which shows that she has a keen interest in doing the business with Mr.
Moro. Mary should not be late for the meeting as it seems to be rude for the Japanese. So she
must be time. She should express in such a way that she is examining the business cards while
receiving it from Mr. Moro. She should not make any jokes and use apologies where necessary.
It is concluded that Mary who wishes to expand her business in Japan with an older man. Hence,
she should know about Japanese business culture. Japanese business etiquette is essential for
conducting business in Japan with an older man. There are various rules of Japanese business
etiquette that Mary should be aware before visiting Japan for the success of the meeting such as
bow before the person with clasped hands, wait before sitting down, etc. The Hofstede model of
culture is used to measure the cross-cultural communication of Japan with the help of five
dimensions named, power distance index, individualism vs. collectivism, uncertainty avoidance,
masculinity vs. femininity and long-term orientation.

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