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Review focus: behaviour, social drinking, attitude, behavior, chotto ipai, custom
Asian Business Code Words Index NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company Asian Business Strategy & Street Intelligence Ezine
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Westerners, with their free-wheeling behavior, pride themselves on being able and willing to talk about almost anything, anywhere, anytime, and being as candid or as blunt as the occasion seems to demand - the exact kind of behavior that is diametrically opposed to what the Japanese have traditionally considered desirable and acceptable on most occasions. Certain facets of Japanese etiquette restrict both their manner of speech and what they say in official, formal settings. Propriety often prevents them from saying directly what they believe, or what they want to say, so they have come up with a number of ways to overcome this handicap. One of the most common ploys is to enlist the aid of third parties as go-betweens. Japanese businessmen, in particular, will ordinarily go to almost any length to avoid talking about matters that might result in verbal fights - from keeping quiet to ignoring situations, to denying them. In business, this attitude and behavior can result in serious matters becoming worse if the concerned party does not know enough to pursue the subject via other means. When the Japanese want to talk to someone in business situations where confidentiality is desired, where someone wants to talk about something that is not a recognized and established policy or program, or where complaints are involved, Japanese will typically go out of their way to personalize the setting. One of the more common practice is to say to someone, "Chotto ippai yarimasho" (Choat-toe eep-pie yah-ree-mah-show), which figuratively means "Let's have a drink" - an invitation to go to a nearby coffee shop if it is during the day, or often to a bar if it is at the end of the working day. Businessmen use the chotto ippai custom routinely to have conversations with counterparts in other sections and departments, and with members of their own department. Bosses regularly chotto ippai their subordinates when they want to admonish them. The use of the chotto ippai custom is not always negative or surreptitious. Managers frequently invite their staff or their colleagues out for a few rounds of drinks after work just to socialize with them without the restraints of formal etiquette, and to nurture relationships. The conversations that take place at these informal meetings very often result in the development of new company policies and programs, or in decisions being made to scrap proposals or projects that are not working out. Here again is another facet of the Japanese way of doing things that foreign businessmen can easily assimilate into their practices when dealing with Japanese companies. It will not only make the Japanese more comfortable, it will subtly reassure them that you are a person who can be trusted to do the right thing. A more literal translation of chotto ippai is "just one (glass) full," but this is usually misleading because very few such sessions end with just one drink (unless they are one of those that occur during mid-day at a coffee shop). Having participated in a great many chotto ippai that involved other foreigners who were newcomers to Japan, a little advice could go a long way: over-drinking at such meetings is seen as a character flaw, and does nothing at all for one's image as a businessman.
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Boye Lafayette de Mente is one of our regular monthly columnists at the 
| This month's column is excerpted from NTC's Dictionary of Japan's Cultural Code Words, by Boye Lafayette De Mente available from NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company |
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