3 minute read
Japan from a different angle
from BBC MONITOR 30
Business Development Manager Nick Reynolds tells us about his recent visit to customers in Japan, where a map gave him a new perspective on the country – and business etiquette is very different...
In an age of back-to-back video calls, instant online communication and robots that can write your emails, is meeting real people face-to-face necessary anymore?
BBC Monitoring has had customers in Japan since the 1960s. And in Japan, business etiquette is very different from any other country I’ve been to. Courtesy, politeness, formality and a stress on building trust are essential. So meeting my customers in Japan face-to-face, as I was lucky enough to do in March of this year, takes on an importance it may not have in other parts of the world.
Respect
The quality of relationships in business and everywhere in the culture is critical. You must show respect. If someone gives you a business card, whatever you do, do not put the card in the back pocket of your trousers. The card is a gift: beautifully designed and printed on paper of the highest quality. Treat the card with respect.
“Service before profit”
On the wall at the front of the Diamaru department store in downtown Osaka there is a bronze plaque. The plaque states there has been a store on the site since 1726 and that the philosophy of the company is based on a text from the 3rd Century BC: “service before profit”.
I learned a thousand things in Japan, and got a deep insight into this unique country. While technologically at the cutting edge, so many aspects of the country have remained the same for thousands of years.
Map turns the country on its side
My brilliant fixer found me a map of Japan used by members of the Diet (the Japanese Parliament).
Instead of showing Japan the standard way, running from North to South, the map turns the country on its side.
Suddenly everything is different. North Korea is incredibly close, on the doorstep. China and Taiwan not much further. Russia is a few miles away. The sea between these islands and land masses is a narrow, tight, crowded and contested area. Above Japan, nothing but the blue Pacific.
On my return to London I showed the map to my colleagues in the BBC Monitoring team who look at media from Chinese sources and in the rest of the world. Being experts, they already understood the complexities of the region, as China seeks to expand its global influence.
For me, as an insight into the geopolitics of the region, the map opened my eyes. I started to see the world as my customers might see it. If I continue to do that, BBC Monitoring will continue to prosper.
