Very often we are asked how to address Japanese business partners or colleagues correctly. Here are a few tips, which of course apply equally to written correspondence as well as to conversations. As a rule of thumb, in Japanese business life the surname name is always followed by the honorific suffix “san” (meaning “dear” or…

The coronavirus COVID-19 has shaken up the way we work. We now know more about Zoom or MS Team applications than we did a few months ago and have all been invited to an “online apero” at this point. As managing director of a company specialized in multi-cultural training to improve business efficiency when working…

During one of my seminars I gave in Japan, I realized the different reactions Japanese and Westerners have towards being told they have made a mistake.   I am talking about the very first, almost instinctive reaction towards someone who is telling you something is wrong in your presentation, in your report or in the…

Non-Japanese participants to JCO’s sessions often express their incredulity when their supposedly polite Japanese colleagues are suddenly answering their phone albeit being in the midst of a conversation with them. “They just left me standing there…” says one German employee in a Japanese company. Another observation that seems to clash with the notion of the…