3 ms·
Never say "no." Negotiations, the Japanese way.
- T_S_ 15y agoI used to design financial products. The New York sales person would usually say "My customer will not buy that piece of s&#t." The Tokyo salesman would say. "I will show it to my customer." Then radio silence for a week. Or at worst, "Hmm... Very difficult". More silence. After a while I began to appreciate the New York sales people. They saved me time.
- pavel_lishin 15y agoI guess Japan is the extreme version of a Guesser culture.
- msbarnett 15y agoIt's not that they were slower or trying to waste your time with long "radio silences", it's that they didn't realize that you didn't realize that "Hmmm...Very difficult" was an upfront, flat-out, "fuck no" in their culture.
- prodigal_erik 15y agohttp://www.analytictech.com/mb119/crosscultural_communication.htm http://www.analytictech.com/mb119/crosscultural_communicatio... quotes some of Dave Barry's best on this. "Perhaps you would prefer to take a train."
- zalew 15y agoThere's a similar avoidance of negative response in Arabic culture. It's hard to hear that something can't be done or is impossible to achieve, more likely someone will assure you that everything is fine and will call back, which never happens, so don't hold your breath. The reason behind it is "not to make somebody unhappy". Well, gotta love cultural differences :)