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The Simple Guide to Customs and Etiquette in Japan
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 18, 2023
never felt so prepared to be a white man traveling on business to Japan in 1997!
(still has some useful tips and is simple and short, so I'll give it that)
(still has some useful tips and is simple and short, so I'll give it that)
November 6, 2014
This is a short, easy read about traveling to Japan. It's focused mainly on if you are going for business, meeting up with associates or other companies. Some of the social etiquette does translates if you are just traveling for fun/tourism, too.
This book was only slightly handy. It was written over 20 years ago, so some things have changed culturally in Japan, some things have been changed with access to the Internet, and some etiquette items were just plain wrong.
One thing that I found very inaccurate was that the author recommends that you rub your wooden chopsticks together at a restaurant to remove splinters. This is wildly rude in Japan as it IMPLIES there ARE splinters. Most chopsticks in restaurants, even the cheap throw away kind, will not have splinters.
Some suggestions, such as how to give your associates gifts and who takes out whom to dinner, really reflect more on business associates schmoozing rather than actions for someone as part of a tour group staying at a hotel.
Overall, this book has some pretty good advice and a good eye opener on how different each culture is. I would use this as a guideline for what kind of etiquette questions to look up on-line, and not just take everything written as still fact.
This book was only slightly handy. It was written over 20 years ago, so some things have changed culturally in Japan, some things have been changed with access to the Internet, and some etiquette items were just plain wrong.
One thing that I found very inaccurate was that the author recommends that you rub your wooden chopsticks together at a restaurant to remove splinters. This is wildly rude in Japan as it IMPLIES there ARE splinters. Most chopsticks in restaurants, even the cheap throw away kind, will not have splinters.
Some suggestions, such as how to give your associates gifts and who takes out whom to dinner, really reflect more on business associates schmoozing rather than actions for someone as part of a tour group staying at a hotel.
Overall, this book has some pretty good advice and a good eye opener on how different each culture is. I would use this as a guideline for what kind of etiquette questions to look up on-line, and not just take everything written as still fact.
September 2, 2011
This was a most informative and entertaining book about the culture and behaviors of the Japanese. No doubt, it's contents will be useful to me when I finally learn the Japanese language and associate with Japanese people.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews