Omoiyari: 6 Steps to getting it right with Japanese customers is an essential guide for anyone who has or wants to have Japanese companies as a customer, client or partner. Thirty three short, easy to read chapters grouped into six steps covering everything from first impressions, negotiations, communications, processes and the heart of Japanese customer service expectations.

The writer has worked for 12 years inside two of Japan’s largest companies in the UK and Japan and run her own professional services firm aimed at the Japanese market for the past 10 years.

Understand “Omoiyari” – the ability to get yourself inside the customers’ shoes and how to act on it, and your Japanese clients will be your customers for life.

You don’t need a Kindle to read this book – Kindle apps are available for iPads, Android based phones and tablets, PCs, Blackberrys etc

 

The Lowdown: Business Etiquette – Japan

The Lowdown: Business Etiquette—Japan will give you practical tips on how to navigate your way through a business trip to Japan, and on how to behave and how NOT to behave in both business and business socialising situations.

This guide will help to ensure that you maximise your time in Japan or in dealing with your Japanese business colleagues, thus making you a greater asset to your company and your profession. Topics covered include:

• Preparing for your trip
• Understanding Japanese communication styles
• How to navigate your first business meeting – what to do and what NOT to do!
• Overcoming the language barrier
• Understanding the importance of hierarchy – consensus-building, nemawashi, and protocol
• How to cope with social invitations and understand their critical importance in a business relationship
• Hosting Japanese visitors
• Special tips for women doing business in Japan
• A list of useful phrases

Business Communication

Co-written with Japan Intercultural Consulting founder Rochelle Kopp, Business Communication [Lightworks, 2008] [link to amazon.co.jp] was written for the Japanese market, trying to put forward an easily comprehensible global standard for business communication, on topics such as clarity, consistency, formality, good questions, feedback, problem solving, non verbal communication, emails, meetings etc.

We are delighted to see it has had three 5 star reviews on amazon.co.jp

 

The History of Mitsubishi Corporation in London: 1915 to Present Day

 

The History of Mitsubishi Corporation in London [Routledge, 2000] [link to amazon.co.uk] examines the culture clashes, the friendships and the changing businesses that Mitsubishi Corporation’s London branch oversaw in the 85 years since its establishment.

Review [link to PDF] on page 8 of the German Institute for Japanese Studies Newsletter, February 2001.

The journal Business History‘s review is here.

Kaisha no Naka no Gaikokujin

(Outsiders Inside the Japanese Company)

Written by Emiko Magoshi, Pernille Rudlin, Edward Scheckler, and Rochelle Kopp, Kaisha no Naka no Gaikokujin [JETRO Books, 1996] helps the Japanese manager with non-Japanese employees on the team. It’s available from the Kinokuniya online bookstore.

Encyclopedia of Japanese Business and Management

 

Pernille Rudlin was also a contributor to the Encyclopedia of Japanese Business and Management [Routledge, 2001] [link to amazon.co.uk].