Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2022, having first been published in 2017 and updated in 2022. It mentions Covid measures that reflect the circumstances of that time.
In the art of negotiation there is a general protocol to follow. When negotiating with the Japanese, the protocol you learned probably won’t work. Part of success in a negotiation lies in knowing the other side inside out, and in the case of the Japanese, their culture means we have to break many clichés about negotiation.
I’d go as far as to say that even expert negotiators must forget everything they’ve learned so far when they want to do business with the Japanese.
For this we turn to the advice of Richard Lewis, author of When Cultures Collide. Lewis has devoted much of his life to studying everything to do with business according to each country’s culture. In fact, he put together a remarkable summary of the 24 business leadership styles by country culture.
Lewis spent many years in Japan, so he studied in depth the secrets of negotiating with the Japanese and how that cultural mindset affects foreign businesspeople who want to reach agreements with them.
What you need to know when negotiating with the Japanese
To begin with, if body language matters in a negotiation, when it comes to negotiating with the Japanese there should be no body language at all. We must not show emotions through our gestures. You never break the ice with a joke. In fact, the slightest joke can wreck the negotiation because of the apparent lack of seriousness.
A simple glance at a female employee in the offices can be considered disrespectful and get you thrown out of the building immediately.
But to better understand why negotiating with the Japanese is so different, we need to look at their ancestral culture, which is still very much present in Japanese companies today, whatever their size.
While Western negotiators represent people who in turn run companies that in turn belong to someone else, the Japanese represent their company, which at the same time represents a group, which in turn represents Japan. So you will never close a deal in a first negotiation, nor in a second meeting. You probably won’t close one in the next four meetings either.
Negotiating with Japanese companies is an exasperating process
According to Lewis, the negotiation process with Japanese companies can be exasperating for anyone who isn’t used to it, because you may have to explain to 18 different people exactly the same thing that was explained before.
Every member of the group has to get to know the visitors. At each meeting there will be someone in a more senior position, so the negotiation will be like a video game in which you keep moving up a level. As long as the meetings keep coming, it’s a sign that we’re making progress. It means you’re still in the game.
You can’t put on the pressure when negotiating with the Japanese
With Japanese companies, hardball negotiation or pressure to reach a deal doesn’t exist. You’ll never get there that way. If you set a deadline for them to decide, you’ll have lost the negotiation, because they will quietly withdraw and you’ll never see them again.
Lewis recounts that he was once negotiating the lease of a building in Japan. With great difficulty, they got a meeting with the chairman of the company that owned the building. He was a 70-year-old man who spent 30 minutes talking about the building’s advantages and reputation. Finally, after telling the story behind the building, he told them the rent.
The expert negotiator accompanying Lewis immediately offered him half. The Japanese chairman and his interpreter stood up, smiled, bowed in unison and left the room. They never saw them again.
You do negotiate with the Japanese, but Arab-style negotiation (which basically consists of haggling over the price) is considered disrespectful.
The Japanese never say NO in a negotiation
Japanese respect and extreme courtesy are well known, and go so far that they rarely say NO in a negotiation. Even if they aren’t interested in the collaboration you’re offering, they will smile at you, give you a company gift, and may even show you around the city, but you will rarely hear a flat NO.
You won’t know something is wrong until you try to get hold of your contact at the company and find they are always away, ill or have had to go on a trip.
Points Richard Lewis considers important when negotiating with the Japanese
1. The first person who contacted you is key
The first person you contacted at the Japanese company, or who contacted you, will always be present throughout the negotiation period. If at any point in the process this person stops attending the meetings, something is wrong.
2. Negotiation is almost always a group affair
The Japanese always negotiate in large teams. Each member of the team has a different specialty, and you must never make any of them uncomfortable or disrespect them.
3. There will always be someone more senior when you speak to a “junior”
A senior person will be present who will rarely speak. They will be watching you and seeing how you answer each member of the group’s questions in their area.
4. No one has the power to close the deal except head office
However many senior people there are in the group, it will have to refer to head office. So it’s impossible to close a deal in the first negotiation, and probably in the second as well.
5. They are not individuals. They are a company
Decisions are made by consensus, so don’t waste time trying to win over a single person. Nobody will take a position as an individual. They will always do so as a company.
6. You’ll feel a sense of déjà vu when negotiating with the Japanese
The second meeting is always the same as the first, although some questions may go deeper.
7. Little flexibility in the negotiation
Japanese negotiators present their company’s position and have no authority to change it, so there is no flexibility in their position.
8. Negotiating with the Japanese is not for the impatient
They are extremely cautious and experts in delaying tactics. In other words, they will drag out the negotiation as long as possible so that there are no misunderstandings later on.
9. You’re always negotiating on a tightrope
The Japanese don’t hesitate to break off a negotiation if the other side is too forceful, impatient or doesn’t respect protocol.
10. But the Japanese aren’t as immovable as they seem
If you show great respect and your demands are reasonable and well founded, they are capable of changing their own terms considerably to bring the negotiation to a successful conclusion.
11. Be clear about this: theirs is a culture of respect
They will show enormous respect towards the negotiators on the other side. They expect you to do the same with theirs.
12. You’re negotiating with Japan
Sometimes they bring a very high-ranking person to the meeting, so it wouldn’t be unusual for a former Japanese minister, who acts only as a consultant to the company, to turn up at a meeting.
13. Whoever you are, to the Japanese you’re an outsider
The Japanese attitude towards foreigners is always the same: you’re an outsider to them, even if you send Bill Gates to negotiate.
Tips to avoid misunderstandings when negotiating with the Japanese
Avoid body language
Avoid body language: don’t wave your arms around or make sudden hand movements.
Don’t touch
Don’t touch people unnecessarily. They find it disrespectful. Bear in mind that even before the Covid measures, they greeted each other at a distance.
Don’t put your arm on their shoulder
Don’t put your arm on a Japanese person’s shoulder to let them through a door first. In their culture, this gesture is an attempt to show your superiority. In other words, you’re calling them “inferior”.
Always use a soft tone of voice
Negotiations with the Japanese usually proceed calmly and quietly, even harmoniously. Don’t break the harmony with a harsh tone of voice.
Keep the negotiation private
Don’t discuss what is said in the negotiation with a third party unless you have express permission to do so.
The unwritten protocol
- Don’t talk business in the first 15 minutes of a conversation. They aren’t in such a hurry and want to see how you handle yourself. They will be sizing you up while you talk about things that have nothing to do with business.
- Never address a Japanese businessman by his first name, and don’t even think of bringing up the Second World War.
- Don’t offer your hand to a Japanese businessman unless he is ready to make the gesture. For the Japanese, shaking hands is an unhygienic practice.
- Always present your business card straight away at the first meeting.
Lewis reminds us that Japan has modernised, which is not the same as saying it has become Westernised.
And be careful about getting into topics like leadership or motivation with the Japanese. Believe me when I tell you that when it comes to motivation and leadership spirit, they are light years ahead of any Westerner.
What they understand by motivation and leadership is something we can’t even dream of compared with the culture of the land of the samurai.
According to Lewis, the Japanese consider it important to do business with people of a certain age, so a young executive may find it harder to win the group’s trust.
And that’s just for negotiating with the Japanese. If we move on to the protocol for “picking up” a Japanese woman, the rules would be very similar: on a first date, don’t touch unnecessarily, be patient and don’t bite her (at least not on the first date).
This article is an extract based on the book When Cultures Collide. We first published it in 2017 and updated it in 2022.
Featured image: Oli Studholme, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
