Preparing Western Managers for Business in Japan. An Analysis of the Japanese Culture

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Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Communications - Intercultural Communication, grade: 1,0, University of Applied Sciences Dortmund (Wirtschaft), language: English, abstract: This thesis deals with the adequate preparation when planning business endeavours with Japanese Companies. As Japan is the second largest market in Asia and one of the strongest markets worldwide, it is an important trading partner for Western countries. Many companies, when attempting to move into the Japanese market, run into difficulties that derive from wrong expectations and misunderstandings. These difficulties can be managed with decent preparation. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is the elaboration of a training program based on an analysis of the Japanese business culture. To achieve this goal, we combined a profound categorization of the Japanese culture with interviews we conducted with people who have gained experience with the Japanese business culture in order to identify possible obstacles on the one hand and determine best practice preparations and to derive an exemplary training program on the other. The results of the different parts of the thesis provide the foundation of an exemplary training program designed to simplify the transition for businesses intending to expand in the Japanese market. This training program combines extensive general culture and language orientation that help easing the transition with a focus on Japanese idiosyncrasies in business. The key elements include the unique characteristics of communication in Japanese business. This training program will improve cross-cultural communication and thus mutual business relations.