Business and HR Challenges between the USA and Japan

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Business and HR Challenges between the USA and Japan
Japan businesses are excellent partners for U.S. based companies. On the other hand, U.S. based companies have found great success by entering into Japanese markets. As confirmed by the U.S. Census Bureau, Japan is the United States’ fourth largest trading partner (Yoo 10). Japan also benefits from the technological spillovers of American companies. Despite these benefits, there are business and HR challenges that surface when the U.S. is conducting business with Japan and vice versa. Entailed in this paper is a discussion of business and HR challenges between the USA and Japan.
When communicating, Americans tend to be more forward, direct, and unafraid of speaking of their minds. An indirect tone is perceived as unorganized and unprepared by the American culture. Contrastingly, in Japan, a forward and direct approach is perceived as rude. This is a challenge business people from the U.S face when conducting business with business people from Japan because they are subtle when expressing their opinions. Instead, they use non-verbal communication because they assume that the other person knows what they mean.
American business people communicate with opinions and facts. Even though facts and opinions are also important in Japan, Japanese business people discuss conflict indirectly because they do not want to create public dispute or confrontation. Communicating with opinions and facts is beneficial – it mitigates issues at a faster rate. This is a challenge American business people face because to maintain harmony, Japanese business people agree with the group. It is rare for Japanese business people to voice their opinion when the group has arrived at a consensus.
U.S. based companies arrive at decisions faster bec...