Cultural Differences and Doing Business

Cultural differences between countries is one of the most important thing when doing international business. For example, if u want to go to Japan as a manager interested in doing business there, first of all you should learn about the county culture, traditions, etc.

Here are some useful information for those who want to go to Japan or receive japanese guests.

First of all the social interaction. Your hosts may bring up the idea of getting together socially later. This may be a sincere invitation to dinner; it may just be polite banter. Do not be offended if an invitation turns out to have been just talk and don't aggressively bug your counterpart about when you can get together. He may not say "no" directly so you might need to read from his body language what he really wants. If you do go out for dinner, keep in mind that "going Dutch" is not normal in Japan. If you're the buyer, you'll likely be in for a free evening of entertainment. If you're the seller well, if you were a local, you'd probably be picking up the tab. However, it's not quite this simple since your hosts may still insist on paying because you are a visitor in their country. Also, it is normal for the inviting party to pay. In all cases, if your host is planning to bear the dinner expenses, make at least a meek attempt to pay. Don't worry he won't let you. But even your insincere attempt to pick up the tab will have looked good. And, you can offer to pay for his dinner when he visits your home country.