> I remember my old boss' example of "when walking down a street in Beijing, if you ask somebody directions to a street that they don't know, they will adamantl

> I remember my old boss' example of "when walking down a street in Beijing, if you ask somebody directions to a street that they don't know, they will adamantly indicate that they know and it's that way (a random direction) in order to not say they don't know the true direction. That actually happened to me in Japan. And now that I have been working here for a few years... let me tell you that communication with (most) Japanese colleagues is quite difficult. They are extremely afraid of taking any kind of personal responsibility, decision processes take forever, and much like you say they don't take any kind of "blame" very well.