[MUSIC] In this situation, we have Bob, a US national, who's a staff person at a company. Visiting Japan. He is visiting Hesayiah an executive in that same organization. Bob enters the office and excitedly walks to Hisaya, extends his hand looking for a warm handshake. She doesn't respond. She politely and gracefully bows, and greets him with a smile, a slight smile. He then proceeds to speak excitedly of his family and stories of home, and she doesn't respond. He gets very irritated. The meeting goes on for the next half an hour. And he leaves very disgruntled. He was wondering why he didn't get to make a closer connection with her and why wasn't she excited to see him. So what happened in this context? Was Bob misunderstood the Japanese culture? In a more traditional sense, we have the context of gender, role, and then simply language. So in the gender bucket, Bob extended his hand in a handshake. There are concepts within the Japanese culture which avoid touching. And there is some politeness in the distance between people physically. So touching can be frowned upon in that context. We also have the question of hierarchy. Bob was a staff person in the organization. Hisaya was an executive. Although the Japanese, when we speak in generalizations, are very respectful, they also are mindful of hierarchical positions. When Bob scurried into the office to greet Hisaya and extend his hand, he had made the risk of offending her or frankly scaring her. Based on the energy and the aggressiveness that he entered the office and walked up to her. We then have the concept of expressing feelings in the gender role. Bob was almost like a puppy dog, attempting to garner Hisaya's liking. Well, in that context of that business meeting, that is not something she was considering that she'd be giving. She was there for a professional, respectful business meeting. In Japanese culture, there is some generalization that business occurs in the business office but it also can occur offsite and after. And a lot of the relationship building occurs outside of the office constraint. Often at dinner or other entertainment venues. So what could have Bob done to do a better job in this interaction? He could have researched customs of the Japanese before he went. There's a lot of literature that's available to get educated. He could have become consciously competent prior to entering this interaction. He also had the ability to ask others. There are enough people now that have done business in Japan from the United States they could have shared stories and interactions with him. And guided him on how he could have approached Hisaya to get the outcome he was looking for. He could have also read a book on Japanese history. Although answers number one and number two are the far most effective, reading a book on Japanese history would inevitably would give some insights into the culture but probably with more focus on history than anything else. And then finally, the option that we have is number four. He could have watched the movie Shogun. Now, watching movies to understand culture is certainly going to give you a little bit of insight. How the movie director would've expressed the Japanese culture, and the time period which is being expressed in the movie Shogun probably is really not relevant for a business interaction in this day and age. So watching a movie does have some cultural aspects to it, but really it's about pop culture, rather than business culture. So answers number one and two would have been your best options. Thank you for reviewing this situation. [BLANK AUDIO]
