Cross- cultural Communication This page intentionally left blank

The Japanese negotiating style
The Japanese are a
high- context culture, with many specific rules for 
social and business situations. They depend on extensive information net-
works and place high value on close personal relationships. In Hofstede’s 
definition, they are collectivist, with the emphasis on group values rather 
than the individual. Their culture is high in masculinity and uncertainty 
avoidance, and medium in power distance terms. Women are usually 
only minor members of a negotiating team, if at all. The Japanese may at 
times appear to ignore women in Western negotiating teams, irrespective 
of their seniority. Japan is an essentially masculine society and it is there-
fore rare to see women in high positions in business, and the traditional 
nature of their culture does not encourage them to have the power to 
negotiate.

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The Effect of Culture on International Negotiations 181
Many older and senior Japanese managers may not speak fluent English 
and will therefore need the aid of an interpreter. In general, the Japanese 
see their own language as creating the right mood and atmosphere for busi-
ness, whereas they see English as more direct and used mainly to exchange 
information.
Relationships are more formally negotiated rather than spontaneous or 
casual and once established are assumed to be longstanding, with consider-
able ongoing personal involvement. The Japanese want to be certain that by 
doing business with someone, their network of contacts will be reinforced 
and not impaired in any way.
The Japanese are cautious negotiators with a long- term perspective. They 
are always well prepared and spend time on building relationships and 
mutual trust. Business is therefore personal. The Japanese see relationships 
as a constant process of interpersonal discussion that builds trust with their 
counterparts. In the early stages, there may be several preliminary meet-
ings, lunches and dinners at which relatively little business is discussed. 
Foreigners must be prepared for every stage of the negotiating process to 
be longer than that to which they are accustomed. Loyalty, a strong work 
ethic, respect for seniority and effective teamwork are traditional Japanese 
values.
As a high- context culture, there is much emphasis on non- verbal, implicit 
and indirect communication and less on written, legalistic contracts. The 
Japanese negotiating style can appear to be impersonal and unemotional, 
but in fact emotion is important for the Japanese as logical and intellectual 
argument cannot alone convince them. Japanese negotiators often exploit 
‘haragei’ (literally ‘belly talk’), the value of silence in meetings and nego-
tiations. Silence that creates a ‘verbal vacuum’ is considered as a time for 
reflection and is not seen as showing a lack of understanding or rudeness. 
Westerners often find such silence embarrassing and feel obliged to say 
something to reduce the perceived tension. If the silence arises from some 
difficulty in solving a particular problem, the Japanese may postpone 
proceedings to give everyone the opportunity for further discussion in 
an attempt to reach agreement. Body language clues are very important,