Home | General Problems that occur between a Japanese customer and a foreigner vendor
Listing out some of the general problems faced between Japanese customer and a foreigner vendor.
These are some of the topics we have covered: Punctuality | Delivering on time | Responding to mails | More Information wanted - Request from our side | More Information wanted - Request from customer side | No Problem | Will do my best | Japanese are not speaking up | Customer requests are always urgent and demanding | Understand there will be many meetings | In direct feedback | Communication gap | Verbal contract
Punctuality
When you must be in the office by 9:00 AM, ensure that you are in the office by 8:55
Avoid giving silly excuses
Apologize and do not repeat this
Similarly when you must be in the meeting room by 9:00 AM, ensure that you are in there by 8:55
Avoid giving silly excuses
Apologize and do not repeat this
Delivering on time
What is on time means?
When you say, you will deliver by Wednesday
Ensure you deliver by Tuesday midnight
When customer opens his mail on Wednesday morning, he should have the deliverable
Delivering by Wednesday midnight is not correct when your commitment is to deliver by Wednesday
Best way to give a commitment on time to deliver is
Mention you will deliver on Wednesday by 8:00 AM JST (include time zone)
Responding to mails
Japanese expects a response to their mails within an hour (or worst case in few hours)
Never delay a mail response. Now you have smartphones with you, develop a habit of responding swiftly
More Information wanted - Request from our side
We ask for more information like design document or detailed requirements document before starting a project
Japanese wants us to use our knowledge and experience and come up with ideas
In Japan, they expect their vendor to understand 10 things from just 1 point
which is a Japanese saying, Hear 1 Understand 10
Ichi Wo Kiku Jyu Wo Shiru
The reason that is possible for Japanese is they are homogeneous
More Information wanted - Request from customer side
When customer wants information, give as much as possible
Japanese love to receive many documents and deliverables
Of course they must be valuable and not just some boiler templates
No Problem
When customer is mentioning about a problem and requesting you to solve it
Our typical habit is to respond by saying "No Problem Mr Customer"
Will do my best
Customer cannot understand what you mean by doing your best
He wants to know quantitatively what you will do, by when and with what quality and cost
Japanese are not speaking up
There are many reasons why Japanese may not speak up during meetings:
To avoid any disagreement or debate
Lack of confidence in English language
Impolite to interrupt
Time not sufficient
They must understand the picture completely and they must analyze before they give a response
Customer requests are always urgent and demanding
In Japan, customer vendor relationship is like that
Customer is treated as God in Japan
Avoid giving any immediate negative response
Carefully analyze the situation and provide evidence for why you can do what and when
Remember long term relationship is very important and it will take a long time to build one
Understand there will be many meetings
You may feel that is waste of time
Avoid showing that in your face
Be patient
Japanese wants all of their team to understand what is happening
and will have multiple meetings to ensure this is done
However, for you to achieve what you want, you should have number of informal meetings - Nemawashi
In-direct feedback
Japanese have a tendency not to hurt us and hence will not say anything negative at your face
Their feedback will be informal and indirect
Some times they will use a third person who is common between us to provide their feedback
This is normal
We should understand and take necessary action
Communication gap
When Japanese says "Yes", does not actually mean "YES" always
When they "Yes", they are saying, "I understand" and NOT "I agree"
Note that "I understand" is NOT EQUAL TO "I accept" or "I agree"
It just means, I have listened to you
When we DO what I have mentioned in this page as DONTS and vice versa will result in problems
Avoid ambiguity. Be Specific in asking what you want
Verbal contract
Proposal must be written in simple English in Powerpoint highlighting the merits and demerits
Contact must be detailed
However, many customers will not check their part of the contract in detail
For them, it is a verbal agreement between you and them to deliver what they are asking
On the other hand, some customers want each and every line to be detailed out and agreed upon