I just received yet another volume of "how to do business in Japan" reading material. This one is "Japan - Doing Business in a Unique Culture" by Kevin B. Bucknall. It should be mentioned that the author is not fluent in Japanese, or at least it is my understanding. It doesn't lesser the book à priori interest. There is a single praise for the book by no one else than Jim Breen of Japanese Page and WWWJDIC: Online Japanese Dictionary Service fame.
I believe for once that this doesn't read like a "I have yet to read the book but I heartily recommend it anyway" kind of nice blurb. This praise is a service between Australians and it's OK that way. I flipped the book over Google Books before purchasing it, feeling that this one might be different. I could not resist and jumped right away to the chapter "Language and Interpreters". I must reckon I was floored down by reading on page 90 this single suggestion : "It is best not to use a Korean as your interpreter, even if born in Japan, and therefore totally fluent. The Japanese team would not be impressed by your choice or judgment."
The author does not elaborate an inch.
Before stopping here and reading further, I must take note for myself that the malaise for someone having lived in Japan, investing much time and endeavor learning the language, not feeling at home but feeling accustomed in a way, that malaise at reading such books may stem from the fact that they are correct in the assumption that doing business here is indeed "doing business in a Unique Culture". But what the books that elaborate in sometimes too much impractical details implicitly tells is that when in Rome do as the Romans do, because the Romans competence at envisioning things potentially being different and at the same time meaningful to them is close to nil. Just like you can't exactly translate "integration" in Japanese, you can't translate exactly "flexibility" because both are not part of the local blueprint. I do not mean that in action, flexibility is a common feature on the other side of the formula. I mean that it is an option to be debated. Not here in Japan.
Despite the gloom consequential of thinking that way, it opens up, from a dry professional point of view, new vistas of cold strategy I am going to start investing into now.
Addendum : This is an excellent book. It puts the previous one to shame. I don't know if Mr. Bucknall speaks Japanese to fluency level, but he knows his business in Japan and has the exact approach I now favor, and that should guide liaison interpreters in their services and interaction with the client here in Japan but elsewhere as well.
Right into the preface, the author states that "If you are there on business it is particularly important to behave in an acceptable manner, because this can speed up the all-important development of your relationship and shorten your stay. This saves you both time ad money."
And even more up to the point : "Behavior seen as proper is also likely to improve your chance of actually reaching agreement, so it is really worth making the effort. (...) You might find yourself wondering "Why must I do it their way, why don't they do mine", but remember that you want to sell, buy, sign or whatever, and a few sympathetic changes in your behavior can help you gain what you want."
It's all about objectives based strategy, just like my take on objectives based interpretation. I have patched the book already with dozens of post-it-notes. Mr. Bucknall is nor sympathetic nor antipathetic describing Japanese manners. He is a pragmatic.
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