blog series 1 japan communication

Japan and the U.S. are two very different cultures when it comes to nonverbal communication. Some of these differences are dress and eye contactIt is very rare that Japanese people entertain in their own homes and it is customary to go out. If you are invited to a Japanese family home there is also dress codes you should follow there. Never wear shoes into a home or a restaurant without the owner telling you to do so. There will be a small hallway between the door and living area of most Japanese homes called a genkan, before you enter the genkan you should remove your hat, gloves, coat and shoes. Eye contact is another major misunderstanding between our culture and the Japanese. In America, establishing eye contact during a conversation shows interest, and honesty. Avoidance of eye contact in the U.S. would show that you weren’t interested, were dishonest or were trying to be sly. In Japan the opposite is true, eye contact shows that you are being aggressive, rude, insistent to be equal or belligerent. In Japan it would be perfectly normal for someone you were talking to them to keep shifting their eyes away from you during your conversation. Japan and America are two vastly different cultures in almost every respect of life. It would seem that these cultural differences in communication would make international business between the two nearly impossible. However, international business occurs thousands of times daily between the two, some Japanese companies are even listed on American stock exchanges. Dress and eye contact are just a few of the differences in communications between our cultures and since these differences will never just go away all we can do is strive to better understand them to make communications between our nations go more smoothly.