“Even monkeys sometimes fall from trees”, as goes the Japanese expression. Despite over 30 years of working experience with the country, this expression came to me as I realized that I had made a cardinal mistake during a kickoff meeting with Japanese clients. First things first, let’s gain a grasp of what this expression really…
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…
The 5 secrets for an effective brainstorming session with Japanese. Have you ever tried to brainstorm with Japanese colleagues? If you did, you might have been disappointed by the lack of participation of your colleagues. You might have though “I can’t believe they are top class engineers and they don’t even have any ideas.” When…
Let´s start with a short question on the use of emoji. Like many things that surround us, emoji originated in Japan and can be translated as 絵, e = “picture” plus 文字, moji = “letter”. They were developed for mobile messaging at the end of the 1990ies. (here is a comparison of how they looked…
In our blog, we answer some of the questions we regularly receive during our seminars. “I had a teleconference with my Japanese colleagues in Japan. We suggested a planning for the project and they all agreed on it. However, soon after, they started questioning everything and were not doing what we had agreed they would…
Local staff often ask us what we tell Japanese participants in our seminars. So here is the translation of a newsletter JCO sent out to expatriates that are working in subsidiaries of our Japanese customers outside of Japan. “Hidden Agenda” (Translated from Japanese) Since 2006 JCO has been very active in improving mutual understanding between local…
On 21 March 2013, Japan Consulting Office launched a new branch in Budapest, Hungary. The new office will be headed by former Ambassador of Hungary to Japan, Dr. Zoltan Sudy. With a diplomatic and commercial career, Dr. Sudy has a deep knowledge of working with Japanese that compliments JCO’s core business. Working with Dr. Sudy…
In late 2012, Japan Consulting Office opened a new branch in Singapore, headed by locally-based Japanese expat Sunao Fujii. With more than 15 years of consulting and training experience, Mr. Fujii is familiar with the different working behaviours, management styles and leadership methodologies of Japanese and non-Japanese. Mr. Fujii’s hands-on method, with a particular focus…
