Working at Sony gave me an opportunity to closely observe how the Japanese communicate. This essay is a summary of my observations which could be useful to anyone planning to visit Japan or work for a Japanese company in India, or may be simply interested in Japanese culture. The Western and especially the American way of communication emphasises clear and precise articulation. In business meetings or sales presentations or technical conferences, we are impressed if the speaker makes his points in a rational way, perhaps using a bunch of charts. We do not like speakers fumbling with words, talking incoherently or too passionately.

Even in our informal discussions, the one making his point logically and concisely seems to be correct. The Japanese always seem to be a little awkward, even when they are speaking in Japanese. They rely heavily on non-verbal communications. Bowing one’s head is mandatory to express respect, gratitude, humility, etc. Many non-verbal interactions take place not just by body language, but in other subtle ways. My Japanese boss, Kenji, told me “When you are talking to a Japanese person, what is not said is just as important as what is being said”. If the Japanese do not like to talk about certain subjects, they would rather not bring it up. They do not like open confrontations.

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There are always premeetings to iron out any wrinkles. He also said, “When you are talking to someone, you must read their eyes.” Kenji practiced what he preached. Once, we visited a Japanese plastic part supplier in Tijuana, who had done business with Sony in Japan and had now set up a plant close to our factory with the hope of expanding the business to North America. They had mostly Mexican workers and three Japanesean older gentleman, the “President” of the company and two young engineers. The engineers gave us a plant tour, showing the injection moulding machines, their quality adherence procedures, various parts they were moulding for other customers, etc.

Moulds were fabricated in Japan, but they claimed to have local skills to repair and/or fine tune them. Kenji asked me on the way back, “So, what did you think of the plant?” “Oh, they seemed to be ok”, I was non-committal. Kenji was emphatic: “I think that they can be a capable supplier. I saw it in their eyes”. One of the reasons for my success at Sony might be the sincerity that exudes from my eyes. One interesting gesture, unique to Japanese, can be called “sucking air”. A speaker, when confronted with a difficult question, would often clench his teeth and inhale through his mouth, literally sucking air and not saying anything. The English translation of this would be “I am not sure I can explain it” or “You got me, I really do not know”. They are very observant and do not waste words on unnecessary comments. My favourite story is about a long-time employee of Sony-Japan who was expecting a promotion at his job. He worked diligently for years in the same position and was a reliable worker. Everyone believed that he was overdue for a promotion. When the time for review came and went with no promotion, he was devastated. He went to a bar after work, totally dejected and depressed.

As he was drinking alone, one of his colleagues spotted him and sat next to him. The colleague put his hand on his shoulder and the only comment he made was, “I understand how you feel”. That was it. No big pep talk to cheer him up or other philosophical lectures. There was no need to say anything; nothing would have changed how he felt. The two men drank in silence. Another form of non-verbal communication takes place on the golf course. Playing golf together indicates a commonality of purposes, common traits of concentration and competitiveness and an appreciation for a peaceful and calm environment for making decisions. It is said that most important decisions regarding business are taken on the golf course. When the Japanese members spoke, they used only a few words. My favourite was their use of “No Good” to indicate a whole range of situations: parts don’t meet specifications, unacceptable design because of reliability issues, broken down equipment, an absurd idea, engineer not fully capable and so on. They would never use subjective descriptions like “it is almost there”, “we can probably use these parts with some modifications”, “the concept looks promising”, etc. It was always a “black or white” bottom-line comment. Another interesting word the Japanese often used was “may be”. When a Japanese says “yes”, it means “yes”; when he says “no” it means “no”; if he says, “may be”, it also means “no”.

I do not know the reason, but I suspect that they are too polite to say the harsh “no”, even though they know very well that the answer is “no”. When they spoke their few words, the message was clear and often biting. I remember one incident. Our plant was supplying parts to the Sony TV plant and there were some quality issues with one of our shipments. I immediately gave my attention to the problem. Mr. Asano was the man in charge of TV production. I had seen him and participated with him in meetings and business dinners, but never talked to him about anything. As he and I were looking for the shipment with “bad” parts in the warehouse, Mr. Asano just said five words, “Good managers make good parts”. However, most Japanese are good at writing in English and many have excellent handwriting. They also like to clarify their comments by drawing little sketches on the side.

They are fairly organized in their writing, whether in a handwritten memo or in an email. One funny aspect of their writing was their phonetic writing of the words in the way they spoke. They often pronounce the letter “l” (as in lotus) as “r”; I have seen written communications where they wrote “erectron” instead of “electron”! It is no wonder that it was a Japanese person who invented the concept of “emoji”. Whether they spoke or wrote good English, almost all Japanese workers understood English very well. This ability of the Japanese may not be obvious at first because typically they simply do not say a word and sit with stoic faces in a meeting or conference conducted in English. They understand American humour perfectly, unlike other Asians.

Sometimes, they use this false perception of them by others to their advantage. If you are visiting a Japanese company, especially the smaller ones, the boss would typically be an older Japanese man who would pretend not to understand English. A younger interpreter would translate everything you say into Japanese and vice versa. This gives the older man more time to think and get a second opinion from the interpreter to see if their understandings are similar. Another Japanese custom I liked very much was the idea of giving a gift. Every time, an employee of SonyJapan came to visit us in San Diego, he would bring a small gift; a set of table mats or a pen/pencil set or a holder of business cards. Instead of the expressions we typically use to indicate how glad we are to meet someone, a small gift says so much. I conclude by saying “Domo Arigato (thank you very much)” to all readers for reading my essay and bowing my head.

(The writer, a physicist who worked in industry and academia, is a Bengali settled in America.)