Moshi moshi, Japan? (1) — Managing the Japanese from distance

We enjoyed the first meeting of “Moshi moshi, Japan?”, held Geneva, 23 January 2015.

Tokyo railway station conserves its history surrounded by hi-rise buildings
Tokyo railway station conserves its history surrounded by hi-rise buildings

Anne opened the floor by presenting her experience with a sales team in Tokyo. All the people around the table shared his/her experience and insights on Japan.

Key words:

  • “We wanted the branch in Japan to adhere to the global process. The Japanese team said, ‘yes’, but in practice, there was no change. They continued doing it in their own way as before.”
  • “To do business with Japan, one must meet people regularly, say, 3 to 5 times a year.”
  • “Meeting with the Japanese in informal opportunity is important.”
  • “It is annoying though that one must think what’s behind all the time.”
  • “Be careful, the Japanese don’t say ‘No’, but say it in very different manners.”
  • “Japan is at the highest end of the ‘High context culture’. Emotional intelligence counts in communication.”
  • “Stay open-minded, accept what it is and build the trust, before business.”

Thank you very much for all the people who participated in the meeting.

Forthcoming meetings —

Friday 13 February, The Japanese mindset seen from a recruiter

Friday 13 March, Japanese market for innovative start-ups

Friday 17 April, Uchi and Soto, the key concepts of the Japanese relationship building

Friday 26 June, Negotiations with Japanese companies (To be confirmed)

 

Participants: Anyone interested in business with Japan.

Time: From 18h00 to 19h15

Place: Starbucks, Rive, Geneva central area

Languages: French and English

Organisation fee: CHF 10.-

Registration: By e-mail or phone call to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics

Yoshiko.kurisaki@gmail.com, Tel. 076 411 6076

 

 

 

Moshi moshi, Japan? — Geneva, Fridy, 23 Jan.

A Happy New Year!

IMG_1781

 

At the beginning of the new year of the sheep, you are cordially invited for the first meeting of “Moshi moshi, Japan?” to be held in Geneva on Friday, 23 January.

“Moshi moshi, Japan?” is an informal meet-up with people who are doing business with Japan. Though Japan is a fascinating market, its business culture is nothing like other cultures. In addition, handling the culture well is the key to success in business with Japan. 

What are other people doing to work well with Japan?

What works and what doesn’t?

What breakthrough did other people make?

Let’s exchange experiences and discuss over coffee!

Mme. Anne Van Walleghem, Head of Compensation & Benefits, Global HR, Nobel Biocare, will share her experience on “How do we work with Japan over the distance?”

Participants: Anyone interested in business with Japan.

Date and time: From 18h00 to 19h15, Friday,23 January

Place: Starbucks, Rive, Geneva central area

Languages: French and English

Organisation fee: CHF 10.-

Registration: By e-mail of phone call to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics

Yoshiko.kurisaki@gmail.com, Tel. 076 411 6076

Europe-Japan Dynamics on the JETRO Switzerland Newsletter

JETRO Geneva, a branch of Japan External Trade Organization issues monthly Newsletter. The feature article for its November issue is Europe-Japan Dynamics.

Consultancy services doe cross cultural Management

Yoshiko Kurisaki has started a consultancy business ‘Europe-Japan Dynamics’ to help Swiss and European companies for cross-cultural management with Japan.

25 years in Europe

Business manners in Japan

Services for Swiss and Japanese companies”

JETRO  (日本貿易振興機構)ジュネーブオフィスでは、毎月ニュースレターを発行し「英語)、スイスの日本企業や、日本経済の動向などを伝えています。11月号の、企業紹介に(1ページ目)、ヨーロッパ ジャパン ダイナミクスが紹介されました

 

Japanese eyes in Europe (1) — Geisha?!

I’m Japanese and live in Europe for 20+ years. Throughout these years, I worked in an international environment, in business, volunteer activities and off-time.

I sometimes feel Europe and Japan are far from each other. Not only due to the geographical distance, but more importantly people on both sides don’t know each other very well yet, at least. Yes, we have the Internet, Wikipedia, we travel over the globe, but still … something is missing.

I am lucky to have trained eyes to see Europe from Japanese eyes and Japan from European ones. My multifunctional eyes are well trained through variety of experiences piled up day by day in the past over twenty years.

Europe is full of interesting, sometimes funny, interfaces with Japan.

Why don’t I share with you, who are as curious as I am, these interesting topics caught by my Japanese eyes in Europe?

Please enjoy!

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I am a great fan of the municipal library of City of Geneva. The library provides luxury space for endless intellectual interests with quiet study rooms equipped with free wifi. It well represents Swiss devotion to the cultural support for citizens.

That said, I was shocked this week when I opened a booklet prepared by the library. The booklet lists a number of books and DVDs to suggest for future travelers to the countries of Asia and Oceania. The information is well sorted out per country, starting from A — Afghanistan.

For the cover page of the section of Japan, three photos are placed; “Geisha”, “Tokyo by night” and “Mount Fuji” (see the photo below).

What? Geisha and Mount Fuji? Do they represent Japan?

OK for “Tokyo by night”.  Central areas of Tokyo looks like the photo, but I have reservation for the rest of the two.

Mount Fuji was listed as the World Heritage by UNESCO in 2013. In this sense, one can say that a beautiful view of the mountain may symbolizes Japan. The photograph used for the booklet, however, is strange. The mountain is with a temple colored in red. It is obviously an artificial image, that doesn’t exist in reality. It is an old fashioned and stereo type image of Fuji an Japan. The modern appearance of the Mount Fuji would be largely different.

What surprised me more is “Geisha”.

First of all, I’d say that the photograph looks like “Maiko”, not “Geisha”. “Maiko” is a trainee of “Geisha”, and these are two distinctly different status of women entertainers.

More importantly, “Geisha” is a product of a feudal era when women’s human rights were completely neglected. When rich men were having parties with “Geisha”, their wives stayed at home looking after children and housework.

“Geisha” women carried out difficult lives. Usually, they were “sold” by their parents when very young to the houses that keeps “Geisha”, that lease women for parties. These girls were often from poor families in rural Japan, and sold to those houses. They had to work hard as entertainers to pay back the large debt to the houses.

Knowing the history of Japanese women, I’m not comfortable to see Geisha’s photograph as a symbol of Japan. Though their status has largely been changed in the modern society, and they don’t work to pay back debts any more, majority of Japanese women are not Geisha.

Geisha and Fujiyama -- Still a stereotype  of Japan?
Geisha and Fujiyama — Still a stereotype of Japan?

What I saw here is the fact that Japan is not known, even to public libraries, where plenty of knowledge is kept. There must be an extreme short of information about Japan in Europe. It’s pity because there is plenty of interesting things to know, to see and to do in Japan.

I wish to bridge between Europe and Japan. Hence I started a series of blog postings.

PS. if you’d be interested in real life of Japanese women in the modern history, I’d suggest to know a story of “The Gift from Beate”, a documentary film.