Customer Reviews

Doing Business with Japanese Men: A Woman's Handbook

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a Japanese businesswoman working for some 20 years, I believe this book will help a lot for those women doing business with Japanese men. Especially those who are new to Japan. Unfortunately, Japanese business world is still male-oriented, and most of Japanese businessmen don't know how to deal with women in business. One of the Japanese businesswomen's complaints is, "Japanese men treat business women only in three manners. Treat them as their wives, daughters, or hostesses at the night bars. They just don't know how to treat them as a collogue or business partnerc" This book consists of actual experiences of many foreign women and how they dealt with. Those experiences are no exaggeration from my eyes. It will be a good preparation to know what you may confront in Japan.

I was so excited to see this title when I was sent to Tokyo (with 2 American men) on very short notice! I read this book cover-to-cover in preparation. When I got to Tokyo, I was surprised to experience a much more contemporary, advanced culture than had been described. For example, the attire suggestions were completely wrong (and sometimes contradictory). You won't go wrong with classic American business attire. I found that by paying close attention to your Japanese counterparts' mannerisms, being slightly more aggressive than usual (I live in NYC, that may be much more aggressive than I think!), and having someone well-respected introduce you to whomever you will be working with will be very helpful. It also would have been useful to learn more about the Japanese tendency to agree with you, when they really don't understand what you're talking about!

A friend loaned me this book, and within minutes, I knew I had to have a copy for myself. Particularly useful for the female executive, this book covers how to establish your authority (and how to handle Japanese men who ignore you and insist on talking to your male subordinates), how to dress, socializing, gift giving, the business card rituals, where the power seat is in the conference room, how to handle inappropriate behavior and sticky situations, communication and correspondence protocol, and numerous other subjects. I am appalled to discover how many mistakes I have made in my business relationships with Japanese companies, but now am sufficiently enlightened to avoid many in the future. If you are female and do business with the Japanese, whether in Japan or in your home country, you must have this book.

Contains a great deal of information that may or may not be useful to anyone, male or female, doing business in Japan depending on the situation. Everything should be taken with a grain of salt. Seems to be focused on people in relatively large companies doing business with relatively large companies. Would have been enhanced by a thorough editing by someone familiar with Japan and things Japanese as it is marred by some obvious mistakes. Statements about "tea leaves" and "cookies" being used in a tea ceremony, "peanut sauce" being one of the two common sauces used in the shabu shabu dish, etc. make one wonder about the veracity of other statements.

Excellent anecdotal and practical advice for real-world situations, along with general observations on the Japanese business dealings from a western female perspective. Also included were a few thoughts from Japanese businessmen as well, which was very interesting. Even though I spent a few years in Japan, I still found new and helpful information here.

The title may ward of half of the population, and that is unfortunate. There are lots of great points that apply to business etiquette in general and are not unique to "women doing buisness" in Japan. The author implies that the foreign woman should take every advantage of her feminin charms on the helpless Japanese Industry, I would only suggest common sense.