Who Should Attend ?

Employees preparing for an assignment in Japan and their partners

Benefits of Attendance

This seminar aims at significantly improving the ability of the participants to meet the challenges of living and working abroad. The objective is to enable them to identify the stumbling blocks that lie ahead and to be able to adapt and integrate in Japan.

At the end of this training, participants will have acquired insights and techniques to:

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Understand Japanese context and culture
• Analyse situations in which misunderstandings may arise and identify ways of communicating more effectively
• Reduce and manage the symptoms of culture shock
• Understand Japanese mindset, work practices, decision-making processes and negotiating styles
• Strike the right balance between personal et professional lives

Training Approach

• A cross-cultural approach of International Mobility
• Country specific trainers
• Personalized and familiy focused action plan
• Access to the Nomad’ Network, an exclusive online tool for Akteos’ clients and experts:  find resources, exchange experiences, knowledge and insights

Programme Outline

Module 1 : Successful personnal integration in Japan

1. Cross-cultural awareness : the key to a successful expatriation

• Taking stock of one's own cultural baggage
• Culture shock and the integration process
• Identifying and going beyond cultural stereotypes

2. Key aspects of Japanese culture

• An extremely densely populated chain of islands including numerous ethnic groups
• A thousand-year empire proud of its history and its civilisation
• The world’s second largest economy
• A society based on secular order

3. Japanese values and behaviour patterns

• Deference to hierarchy and its many nuances
• Honour and a sense of duty: the notions of giri  and saving face
• Discipline, patience and precision
• A respect for rules and order
• The collective mentality: pooling individual skills and assets
• Changes in modern Japanese thinking
• Japanese women at the dawn of a golden age

4. Practical day to day information in Japan

• Focus on the host town or city
• Transport, administration, housing, security, hygiene and healthcare
• Life in the suburbs: shops and businesses, koban, the local neighbourhood
• Learning to speak Japanese
• Social life, leisure activities, schools, extracurricular activities, sport

Module 2 : Successful professionnal integration in Japan

1. The Japanese corporate world

• Conglomerates or Keiretsu to respond to the outsiders and Gaishi. 
• Small businesses, a dense and highly effective network
• The nemawashi:  Consultation... Japanese-style
• The paternalistic model in a new westernized society; the old generation and the new.
• The ambiguous nature of the Japanese salaryman
• The Kaizen: the notion of quality as a process of continuous improvement

2. Effective communication in Japanese environments

• The sound of silence: deciphering messages
• The subtleties of verbal communication, choosing the right interpreter
• Japanese writing: the empire of the hieroglyph
• Perfecting your greeting skills: the many variations of the oijigi

3. Working with Japanese teams

• Building confidence: the idea of give and take
• Building and maintaining your own personal network
• Out of office activities: unwinding and relaxing outside work

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Japanese

• Identifying decision makers and intermediaries
• Respect for protocol: keeping waiting times to a minimum
• Japanese contracts: the scope for never ending negotiation

5. Final handy tips

• Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code
• Avoiding offhandedness: displaying prudence, patience and humility
• Humour: a double-edged sword