How to communicate well in Japan ?
You want to find a Japanese collaborator to enter the Asian market but you do not know where to start? Trust an experienced person to communicate about your products in the most effective way!
This is the first article in a series proposed by Asie Traductions on Cultural Analysis of Japan. It is aimed to enlighten you about the particularities of Japan, its culture and its economy, and especially how to communicate well!
Japanese territory also has its particularities.
Japan is a relatively linguistically uniform country, but differences in pronunciation and accents persist here and there which forms the culture of certain regions.
There are four main cultural families on what constitutes the main archipelago of Japan (the four big islands: Kyûshû, Shikoku, Honshû and Hokkaidô): the Kyûshû dialects, the dialects of Kansai / 関 西 (West of Honshû), the dialects of Kantô / 関 東 (East of Honshû) and the Hokkaidô dialect. However, since the population is massively distributed on the central island of Honshû, it is the northern (Kantô) and southern (Kansai) cultures that prevail.
« The Southern mentality is rather commercial and welcoming while the mentality of the North is more reserved and administrative. »
Japanese or Nihongo (日本語) is the language of Japan’s majority ethnic group, called Wajin (和 人), but there are also other languages related to other ethnies. The indigenous population of the Ryukyu Islands (琉球) speaks Okinawago (沖 縄 語) but seems to have assimilated much with the Wajin, which has allowed the development of the tourism sector. This is not the case in Hokkaidô (北海道) where the relations between the Ainous (ア イ ヌ) and the descendants of Wajin settlers who arrived at the end of the 19th century have always been strained and hampered development.
« While Okinawans outnumber Ainu, their islet homeland is smaller and less amenable to infrastructure development than Hokkaidô. »
Japan still has parts of its territory lacking development and ready to welcome foreign investors. It is therefore necessary to adapt its communication and strategy according to the context.
More important, you need to know how to communicate with a Japanese partner who is already implemented in Asia. The first economy of the continent has already established its presence for a long time in some neighboring countries and can constitute a more reliable partner than local ones. Depending on the location, it is necessary to know how to choose between the administrative seriousness of a company from the Kantô region to the deleterious provincial management of an average structure of the Tôhoku / 東北.
To be able to escort you effectively, a good interpreter must know how to adapt his speech according to his interlocutor and he can do it only after a long experience on site.
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