NEWS

Hello everyone!

Starting today, we are actually going to talk about the differences in communication that we all think we have.

We will be bringing you another series of articles on this topic.

There are many differences between Japanese and foreigners, but it is said that the biggest difference lies in “reading the air or not.

We believe this is where the resistance between Japanese and Americans prevents them from doing business smoothly.

Understanding this difference will help smooth business between the U.S. and Japan.

Let's take a look.

Japan is the most high context country in the world
The order of low context in the three language areas is Anglo-Saxon ⇒ Romance languages ⇒ Asian languages. Japan is the most high context country among the Asian languages.

This means that Japan is the most high context country in the world and the U.S. is the most low context country in the world.

The U.S. and Japan are the two countries that have the most distant communication methods. Understanding this discrepancy between Japan and the U.S. will help you do business successfully between the two countries. If you can overcome this communication problem, you will be able to do business around the world with the strongest team in the world.

Know the difference between the two.
The key to communicating in a high context country is to understand what is being said in unspoken words.

In a high context country, it is also necessary to be able to sense what people around you are thinking during a meeting and to adapt to the situation around you.

This is similar to the situation of a couple who have been together for many years and can at least perceive and understand each other through their words. This is because they have shared many things over a long period of time and have many things in common. Because Japan has a long history shared by a single ethnic group, many common things are shared by many people. In other words, people always have an unspoken understanding, and they live their lives by reading each other's minds.

On the contrary, in the U.S., many ethnic groups have mixed in their short history and live together.

In such a low-context country, people have little in common, so they have to speak one by one because there is no tacit understanding. Therefore, from a Japanese point of view, in a meeting with Americans, you may feel that you are unnecessarily talking about things that are obvious. However, in the U.S., the most low-context country in the world, this is an important method of conversation.

Likewise, Japanese who do not know this rule may feel that they are being made fun of in meetings, because the explanation is as simple as explaining to a child.

From a Japanese point of view, Americans may feel that many people do not read the air, but this is a necessary element in conversation with Americans.

Be as clear, easy to understand, and simple as possible...

If you do not keep this in mind, Americans will feel uncomfortable. There is no tacit understanding. There is no air-reading.

There is even a joke that the British must add “this is a joke” at the end of a joke to Americans in order for them to understand the joke.

The most high-context Anglo-Saxon language, England, is very low-context from the point of view of Italy and France.　


I see, and we wonder if many of you are wondering.

It is interesting to learn about these cultural differences.

Stay tuned next week for more interesting continuing topics!


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