The gap is not a matter of foreign languages, but largely a cultural issue. In other words, the context of languages used by both Europeans and Japanese are different. Languages in business need to be understood in line with the way of thinking of your counterpart of communication, not yours.

The hidden communication gaps fascinate me, as they offer valuable clues of cross-cultural communications.

I am writing essays on the hidden communication gaps in business from time to time, as I encounter interesting episodes.

Please share with me a joy of cross-cultural communications!

********************************************************************************

1. Japanese don’t say NO. Understand the answer in the context.

Mr. Suzuki’s case

Mary, a director for Europe of Company A, plans to meet with Ms Tanaka, a director of a company B, during her next business travel to Japan. To take an appointment, Mary has asked Mr. Suzuki, a manager in the Tokyo branch of Company A. Though Mary knew Ms Tanaka in person, she has asked Mr. Suzuki for an arrangement, as she knows it a Japanese way of working.

During the course of e-mail exchange with Mr. Suzuki, however, Mary has become unsure if she is meeting with Ms Tanaka on Wednesday or Thursday.

To clarify the date, Mary wrote to Mr. Suzuki; “Dear Mr. Suzuki, Please could you seek her confirmation as to the good date for him, Wednesday or Thursday?

Mr. Suzuki replied: “Dear Mary-san, I already communicate with Ms Tanaka-san. She is so busy from Wednesday to Thursday.

Mary thought, “Yes or NO??? Mr. Suzuki appears to be still negotiating the date, though Ms Tanaka will be busy during these two days. Will I meet Ms Tanaka?”

Ms Tanaka’s case

Mary has decided to write to Ms Tanaka directly, as Mary didn’t want to push Mr. Suzuki further. Mary is well aware of the delicacy of communications.

“Dear Tanaka-san,

I hope you are well. I understand that you have now meetings on Wednesday and Thursday including lunch time, so not to worry, we can organise another time. If you come to Europe, let me know in advance so we can organise lunch or coffee here.”

If Ms Tanaka would reply, “I am so sorry that we can’t meet this time. I look forward to seeing you my next travel to Europe”, there will not be a meeting in Tokyo. If her reply would be, “Yes, we are going to meet. I’ve advised Mr. Suzuki that I was still working on may agenda to spare time to see you.”, Mary will meet Ms Tanaka.

To Mary’s surprise, Ms Tanaka’s reply was beyond her imagination.

“Thanks, Mary-san.

I hope you enjoy Japanese spring and syabu-syabu!!

Best regards, Tanaka (Ms)”

Mary has finally interpreted that Ms Tanaka wanted to say “No”, without saying “No”.

I have selected NEC, a major company in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry in Japan.

(Note: The information I used for the review is the one posted at the company’s web site in February, 2011.)

NEC has a solid tradition in integrating CSR in its corporate vision. When evaluated against the fifteen benchmarks used at the course work, the report was found to fulfill most of criteria to be transparent and responsible.

Next challenge of CSR for NEC would be to involve stakeholders in its overseas operations. This may neccesitate to include in the stake holders NGOs working on various social values, such as human rights and the environment.

Globalisation of corporate activities inevitably requires CSR professionals to assess how much and in what ways the spirit of CSR is exercised outside the home country. This is a challenge even to those companies with best CSR practice. I would expect too see what new history of CSR would NEC create outside Japan.

My presentation at the CSR course is available here.

Key words

Web accessibility, the Web, WCAG, Information Society, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), the elderly, people with disabilities, aging of society, Europe, Japan, voluntary standards

Abstract

Ongoing changes in society towards the Information Society have given rise to new challenges with reference to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).  This paper focuses on web accessibility as a responsibility of corporations and discusses practical ways to ensure that websites, “the Web” hereafter, be made accessible to all the readers, including the elderly and people with disabilities.

The United Nations (the UN) recognises Web access as a basic human right in the Information Society, and Governments in major economies endorse it.  On the technical side, a set of high quality voluntary standards has been established by a group of experts.  Despite this backing, implementation of web accessibility has been slow in practice.  There is a gap between what should happen and what it is happening.  Why are good ideas adopted slowly?

To gain a better insight into today’s reality, its barriers and opportunities, the author interviewed web owners and experts, who are promoting web accessibility in Europe and in Japan, which has led to a number of recommendations for action to all stakeholders.

* This paper has been prepared as a course requirement for the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Corporate Social Responsibility, University of Geneva, Switzerland, 2011

The full paper is available from here.