IDENTIFICATION PROBLEM

Negotiation can be one of the greatest challenges faced by Westerns executives in Japan.
According to the Dr. Alferd Jaeger from McGill University, many a deal have failed due to
the cross cultural misunderstandings or differences in communication and negotiation style
(DeJong, 2013). When in negotiating, the Westerners will try to win whereas for Easterners,
they tried to keep both sides happy whatever the results are. In this case study, Damon as the
representative from American responsible to make a contract with a team from Japan.
Somehow, Damon’s feels the negotiation did not going well due to his inappropriate
behavior. It is believed, there is some factors that affect during the negotiation between
Damon and the Japanese team.

1) Universalism vs Particularism

Damon is a sole representative for his company in United States has brought a gift with his
company’s logo to give to the Japanese team. In Japan, gift giving by two parties that meet
for the first time means to show his company interested to have a business together but will
not happen right away. At this stage, it is not proper to use force at receiver as a favor to
make a business together. (Kumayama, 1991). In Japan, they prefer to have a personal
relationship to develop trust before enter into the business because Japanese tend make a
decision for a long-time. They see the contract not just for business purpose but for a long-
term relationship. For Japanese, when in a pre-negotiation stage, it is really important to build
a relationship with other parties and will spend more time to get to know to each other.
(Kadoi, 2015)

While for American cultures, they just consider a deal is just a deal and assume all rules can
be use in all situation. They are focus to get the result in short times and they always set the
time for other parties to make up the decision. That is why Damon failed in the negotiation
because the Japanese did not like to be given a time limit.

2) Individualism vs Collectivism

Damon is people who in charge in the meeting while the Japanese represent their company in
a group of people. As Damon in an American, he tends to be more individualistic and make a
decision by his own and stress on time consuming. Damon seems to rushing to make a
contract with the Japanese teams. While for Japanese, they cannot make decision quickly
without any consultation and discussion with other group of members and basically, the
highest authority in the company has the absolute charge in decision making. Thus the
process will take longer time as the Japanese will go through over the contract many times
before make decision to ensure there is no problem will arise that might affect their business.

As stated by Richard Lewis, an internationally renowned linguist, the Westerners always

insist for a quick decision and they probably will not get to sign a contract. To make even
worse, if the other party impose a time limit, usually the Japanese will just abandon their
offer. (Lewis, 2014).

3) Affective vs Neutral

On the articles written by Yumi Adachi from Weber State University, Japanese often to using
indirect communication or neutral cultures unlike American people, which is really clear and
precise during conversation. For Japanese, they never say “No” and in fact the indirectness to
keep the harmony relationship between two parties because they do not want to jeopardize
the negotiations. (Adachi, 2010). While the Westerners are more to affective cultures and the
person commonly expressing their personal opinion and sometimes can be very
argumentative and very straight forward in negotiation.

Damon maybe did not aware about this but for Japanese people, they really emphasis about
formality, manner and etiquettes, how you should address someone based on status, age and
titles. For Japanese, they must find out who has a higher social status before start the
negotiation just to remind themselves how to fit in among them. (Adachi, 2010). Before
Damon start the presentation, he tried to break the ice by ask them casually to called him by
his first name and share some humorous stories to the Japanese and for some reasons, this act
maybe give unfavorable impression for the Japanese. According to Minako Kadoi from Ural
Federal University, the other party must be able to do the greeting in a proper way to prove
they are really serious to make a business together. (Kadoi, 2015).
Works Cited
Adachi, Y. (2010). Business Negotiations between the Americans and Japan. Global Business
Language, 20-30.

DeJong, M. (2013, January 21). Business in Japan: Cross-Cultural Negotiations with McGill
University's Dr Alfred Jaeger. (D. A. Jaeger, Interviewer)

Kadoi, M. (2015). Japanese Negotiation Styles In Business. 492-496.

Kumayama, A. (1991). Japanese/ American Cross-Cultural Business Negotations. Intercultural

Communication Studies, 51-67.

Lewis, R. (2014, May 8). What You Should Know About Negotiating With Japanese. Retrieved from
Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/negotiating-with-japanese-2014-5/?IR=T