The person that I interviewed for this paper is Yohei Tatefuji, he has adopted an American name and goes by Roy here in the US. Roy is from Yokohama, Japan and graduated from Hitosubashi University in the faculty of commerce. He currently works for the Sumitomo Corporation as a Product Manager in their Chicago Office, and has been in the US for the past year and a half. My father does consulting work for his company and introduced us so we could conduct this interview over the phone. Working for the Sumitomo Corporation in Chicago has been the first time that Roy has worked outside of Japan, but worked in international export while he was working in Japan. The first questions that I asked Roy were on the perceptions about the US before and
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He stated that he felt and still does that Americans tend to be more direct and blunt than the Japanese who in general are subtler. He stated that being too direct in Japan could be considered rude. He specifically referenced body language stating the in the US people are taught to look directly into a persons eyes when speaking to them or listening. In Japan extended eye contact can be uncomfortable for people who aren’t very close and typically eyes are averted. The book covers the differences in body language across different cultures and how the differences can cause mistrust and misperception of the situation among cross-national parties. Eye contact would specifically fall under the term kinesic behavior, which refers to communication through body movements. The book mentions this specific example as well so it appears to be a well-known cultural issue between the US and Japan. The book states that oculesics or subtle differences in eye behavior can throw off a communication badly if they are not understood. It is good that this issue between the US and Japan are well known so there would be fewer issues in international business between the two countries. Roy states that while he knows about this cultural difference it is still something he struggles with on a day-to-day basis. When I asked Roy if there was anything different about the US culture than they thought it would be and his response was that the culture wasn’t
He stated that he felt and still does that Americans tend to be more direct and blunt than the Japanese who in general are subtler. He stated that being too direct in Japan could be considered rude. He specifically referenced body language stating the in the US people are taught to look directly into a persons eyes when speaking to them or listening. In Japan extended eye contact can be uncomfortable for people who aren’t very close and typically eyes are averted. The book covers the differences in body language across different cultures and how the differences can cause mistrust and misperception of the situation among cross-national parties. Eye contact would specifically fall under the term kinesic behavior, which refers to communication through body movements. The book mentions this specific example as well so it appears to be a well-known cultural issue between the US and Japan. The book states that oculesics or subtle differences in eye behavior can throw off a communication badly if they are not understood. It is good that this issue between the US and Japan are well known so there would be fewer issues in international business between the two countries. Roy states that while he knows about this cultural difference it is still something he struggles with on a day-to-day basis. When I asked Roy if there was anything different about the US culture than they thought it would be and his response was that the culture wasn’t