Business Guide to Japan: A Quick Guide to Opening Doors and Closing Deals

by Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Conducting business in a delicate and valuable skill is explained by a true master of Japanese culture.

Not only is Japan the world's third largest economy, it is a global center for design for non–Japanese businesses looking to expand into international markets.

But business people from outside Japan quickly discover that doing business in Japan is unlike anything they've experienced before. They find Japanese business etiquette and culture both highly regimented and maddeningly impenetrable—making it difficult to identify, much less approach, key decision–makers, or to bring negotiations to a successful close.

Japanologist Boye Lafayette De Mente explains the key aspects of Japanese business practices and protocols with specific advice for approaching and engaging with Japanese executives, their staffs, and their organizations.

Business Guide to Japan offers yo invaluable insights into how to unravel the complicated maze of business bureaucracy, interpret verbal and written messages from your contacts, and create the critical social "comfort zone" necessary for working with Japanese companies. Doing business with the Japanese can be both challenging and rewarding, and the Business Guide to Japan offers you precise guidelines for success.

Genres: Japan

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Boyé Lafayette De Mente was an author, journalist, and adventurer. He wrote more than 100 books, most of them about the culture and language of Japan, East Asia, and Mexico.

De Mente joined the U.S. Navy and began his career as a cryptographer based in Washington, D.C. In 1948, he joined the U.S. Army Security Agency and was a decoding technician stationed in Tokyo. While there, he he founded and edited the agency's newspaper, The ASA Star.

De Mente wrote the first English guides to the Japanese way of doing business ("Japanese Etiquette and Ethics in Business" in 1959 and "How to Do Business in Japan" in 1962). His other books run the gamut from language learning to the night-time "pink" trades in Japan, the sensual nature of Oriental cultures, male-female relations, and understanding and coping with the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Mexican mindset in business and social situations. He has also written extensively about Mexico and his home state of Arizona.

Reviews

[Books on Asia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be an old book but most of it still rings true today. With the exception of start-ups and new companies like Rakuten, Uniqlo or Livedoor, staid Japanese companies like Sony, Panasonic and Honda still basically do business the same as they always have. It's the difference between Goodyear and Apple Inc. In addition, if you find yourself having to deal with businesses connected to government, or smaller companies outside of Tokyo, the traditional way of Japanese business still reigns. I've heard time and again how the young people are going to change the way things are done, but what I've noticed is that while Japan's youth are great at dictating consumer demand while they're young, once they get into jobs at regular companies, they quickly turn into salarymen and office ladies because once they've entered a company, they've lost all their power and are starting again at the bottom. Eventually, the young become old and do the same things their superiors have taught them to do. And the reason things haven't changed that much in Japan is probably because the current system works for them. Which brings us to this book which covers the basics of doing business with the Japanese. It can't hurt to give it a read and serious consideration before getting into any kind of negotiations with the Japanese. Even if you find the current business situation different from that in the book, you'll be better prepared knowing the rules of the past, should they pop up in the future.

[Stephen Masters · Rating 5 out of 5]

This turned out to be a really good book on corporate Japan.

I've already known many things from this book, but what makes it good is how genuine the words of the author feel. Everything seems to come from personal experience, and there is a strong feeling of author trying to dig through to all of the details of how the society and the corporate world work.

[Ana Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tiene algunas buenas referencias básicas para hacer negocios en Japón, pero muchas ya son pasadas, habrá que actualizarlo a los nuevos tiempos.