Sell to Japan

What should you wear in summer?

Here is an interesting story by LA Times about dressing down in Japan.

Japan Pushes Casual Fry Days

A funny story, but an important question if you have a business travel plan to Japan in this summer. What should you wear in the hot summer in Japan?

I'm not really sure if  the "e-cool suit" will be popular. I agree on that "when workers visit other companies, many feel uncomfortable wearing a polo shirt with no tie" as Yasutoshi Konishi, a consultant at the energy policy department of the Mitsubishi Research Institute, said in this article.

Still, as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi says and tries by himself, dressing down could contribute to saving energy (and you'll feel less uncomfortable).

I will let you know on this blog when the e-cool suit gets popular in Tokyo, so please wait until June 1st to roll your sleeves up!

Japan is in the Golden Week

After cherry blossoms' flowers had fallen, the best season has come in Japan. The warm spring.

To the hard working business people in Japan, here is another reason why they like the season. The Golden Week.

The definition and history of the term is here, but it’s practically a long vacation days anyway. In this year 2005, thanks to a good combination of national holidays on May 3rd, 4th and 5th, it will be ten consecutive holidays from today, April 29th through May 8th for many people. Many companies simply close their offices during the whole Golden Week, or they have few employees who show up at their office on May 2nd and 6th because many people take time off.

What does this mean to those who want to sell to Japan like you? It’s one of the worst times to call Japanese business partners (another one is the New Year days). Very few or nobody is ready to take your phone call and process your request. The exception is retail stores because the GW (short) should be one of the best seasons (like the Christmas season) for them to attract consumers to their shops. For many other businesses, it’s just time to go on vacation. (The Herald Tribune/Asahi says “Golden Week break sends record numbers packing”)

So, what can you do to contact your business partner in Japan next week? As I discussed before, leaving your voice mail is not good idea. Sending fax? Your message might be read on May 9^th. E-mail? Hmm, in this mobile computing age, your hard working partner might log on his or her company e-mail server, but it’s not a sure bet. The best way from a technical viewpoint is sending your short e-mail to his or her cell phone, but the question is, do you want to disturb your important partner on a picnic by writing “How is the sale of my products going?”

Alas, I really hope your patience pays off by May 9th.

Don’t leave your message on their voicemail

Few Japanese companies use voicemail systems at their office, believe me, even now in the 21^st century.

They might have one at their telephone switchboard office and turn it on after 7pm to catch messages called at night, but you should not expect the message you left on it in English to be heard by an appropriate person. Even if the person you want to talk to understands English, chances are, those who operate the voice mail system don’t at ordinary Japanese companies (Exceptions are large multinational corporations and airlines.).

In Japan that is known as the love of high tech gadget, voicemails have been used, of course, since the birth of the technology, but only at home. Many businesses have not adopted it.

Why do Japanese companies dislike the system many Americans like? Two reasons come up to my mind.

1. Japanese people tend to think it is impolite to make callers talk to a machine. (Being polite is sometimes more important than being productive for many Japanese business people. This is a big topic I will discuss in the future.)

2. Getting a phone line used to be pricy due to the monopolistic telephone market so that many Japanese companies didn’t and still don’t allocate individual phone numbers to every employees.

In the coming VoIP (Voice over IP) age, this cost-related problem will certainly vanish. So, will the situation change in the future? I doubt it. This seems a cultural phenomena rather than a cost issue. Even when they make a personal call to a friend, Japanese people tend to hesitate to leave a message and many of them just hang up. Many people don’t alter their custom very quickly.

So, you would wonder how your call would be received at your customer’s office? Someone who happens to be in the office receives it. In some cases, a designated person receives all calls. In other cases, taking phone calls is a newly-hired employee’s job. This depends on the culture of the company.

This can be a headache to you who want to talk to your counterpart in Japan. It’s like “Gatekeeper everywhere”. I know many American executives hire a gatekeeper to reduce unwanted phone calls, but here in Japan people at any level can’t be directly connected. If you are lucky enough, who pick up your call is whom you want to talk to. If not, someone takes your call and tells you your counterpart is in a meeting or out of office. You can ask the phone taker to deliver your message to your counterpart, but the message should be very short. In the worst scenario -- unfortunately this is the most likely one in many Japanese companies – the phone taker doesn’t understand English at all, and you’re out of luck.

For whatever reason, you need a solution for this. Phone calls are important to make a sale. Even more so for international customers to whom you have less chances to meet face-to-face. Here are three solutions:

1. Use e-mail or FAX instead of phone calls.

This is an easy solution and it is chosen, I would say, too many times. The e-mail and FAX are convenient, but unproductive when you want to make an interactive conversation with your customer. I know you know this limitation. Many people carefully chose a medium when they communicate to their domestic customers. You should do so to your Japanese customers too, shouldn’t you?

2. Leave your message on your customer’s cell phone, which usually has voice mail capability.

This can be only applied if your customer told you his or her cell phone number, which is unlikely if you have yet built strong business relationship with him or her. Another problem of cell phone is, you always need to consider time difference. Remember, unlike office phones, many people bring back their cell phone to their home. If you made a call from your office in New York at 2pm to leave a just short message, you would end up waking up your important customer in Tokyo at 4am! Very polite.

3. Hire someone who knows how to deal with this “no voicemail, no direct number” barrier. That person should be able to speak fluent Japanese. (Do you want to hire me? E-mail me!)

Small things first

Small is beautiful in this small country. Business leaders, too, do their day-to-day job with great care of small things. The detail-oriented attitude is a key in Japan.

So, let me begin with tips about the smallest marketing tool. Business cards.

Without exchanging business cards, any meetings don’t start in Japan. When you see anyone you have never met face-to-face, you must give your business card to the person in the business scene. Period. Even if you feel you know the person well after many phone conversations, it’s a very good idea to exchange a card as an important “ritual” to express your delight to meeting him or her at last.

Of course, if you have done the ceremony with every attendants of the meeting before, you don’t have to do it again. If you find someone you have never met in the conference room, however, you should exchange the card with him or her.

The following pictures show the proper way to exchange it.

1. Before the exchange, take your card case out of your pocket. (For men, breast pocket is the easiest place to pull it)

2. Bow to your prospect/client/counterpart. The depth of a bow depends on whom you are bowing to. The higher his or her ranking is, the deeper your bow is expected. When you don’t know the person’s rank, the safe bet is a deep bow.

3. Present your card with both hands and make upside up in order to be readable to him or her. If your card is printed on both sides in English and Japanese, present it with the Japanese side facing up.

4. Say a greeting. Make yourself known to him or her. There are many ways to do so, but the simplest phrase is like “John Smith desu” meaning “I am John Smith”.

5. When you receive another person’s card in return, again, receive it with both hands, and study it. If you can’t pronounce the person’s last name, this is a good time to ask. (The first name is rarely used in business in Japan, so you can just focus on his/her last name.)

6. After receiving everyone’s cards, gently place them on a table in front of you so that you can always steal a glance at them to know who are speaking. You should not put them into your card case immediately after the greeting, because it would be perceived to be uninterested in their names. In the end of the meeting, put their cards into you card case. Never use your wallet and back pocket to hold the cards. That looks very unprofessional.

The whole idea behind this ceremony in Japan is that the card is not just for printing contact information on a small paper, but for representing himself or herself. So, you should treat the card well as you do the person. This is why bending someone’s card or writing down a memo on the card is considered negatively (even offensive for some people). It’s not a coaster!

Well, you might be overwhelmed by now. You might feel this ceremony thing is a rigid overkill just for exchanging contact information. I know, I know. In the information age, there should be more effective way. (Remember Palm Pilot’s TV commercial where a guy “beams” his phone number to a woman in the passing train?)

I’m not advocating this business culture to all over the world. I just would like to help you sell your products in Japan. Criticizing Japanese business culture doesn’t help to make a sale, but understanding it does. Moreover, accepting it really does.

Oh, gosh. I can write on and on about the tiny card. Also, some practices should be involved to behave properly in the first 5 minutes of every meeting, which is very critical to the successful meeting. I will write more on this topic like how you create your card in Japanese language. Questions and comments would be really appreciated. Just drop a comment below or e-mail me. Stay tuned!