OUR CASE

We are a Peruvian chain restaurants where dishes from our country who want to venture into a
new market be prepared, as our food has been well received worldwide have proposed to enter
the Japanese market. We investigated the Japanese called attention novelty foods that do not
contain too much fat, the preparation is naturally; namely that chemicals are excluded.
We also have a strength that the export of agricultural products from Peru to Japan have
increased and that can help us strengthen the bonds market and reach in an easier way the
public to which we are headed. That's why we have a negotiation with the owners of a Japanese
restaurant as it is by this means which you enter the market.
STRATEGY
One strategy is to visit Japan for the purpose of study and to experience directly the
Japanese market and culture, gaining knowledge of demand, competition, know the foods
that Japanese culture always consume, lifestyle and other aspects necessary to the
introduction of our restaurant to the Japanese market.
In Japan, does not separate personal feelings from business relationships. Friendship is first
and the business is after. They are not willing to do business with someone who can fall
badly or that they think that do not like the Japanese persons or something related to them.
Our strategy when negotiating our entry to the restaurant chain will be, first create a bond of
friendship with our potential partners, and we will give them confidence of the success of the
business, only in this way they will feel confident with us.
The first meetings are usually to exchange general information in order to build a framework
of positive relationship. A good strategy to strengthen relations is we meet with the other
party outside the negotiation and speaks with them about our family, personal life and our
desire that our Peruvian food be will recognized and admired in their country.
The objectives of the Japanese when doing business are growth, stability in the jobs of its
employees and the employment rate in the country. Our agreement with the restaurant chain
will be hiring of Japanese people, and for this form generate more jobs is why we will give
stability to secure those jobs, because they want that their employees to have something
stable and the rate of employment in Japan will have a stable increase.

 According to the Japanese food culture, they always in their daily diet include green tea, it is
why we will incorporate into our menus one cup of green tea, because it is so consumed by
the Japanese and can not miss in your day to day.
Another cultural difference with the Japanese lunch is related to the amount, while we as
Peruvians eat in full and hearty dishes, they
eat in small quantities and small plates and
the strategy we should use to reach the
Japanese market it is to provide our menus is
small dishes and in small quantities, according
to the preference of the Japanese.

KNOW WHAT THEY THINK

In the case of Japanese people, we have to know how they communicate and how they think
during the negotiation processes to get success results. So, Japaneses thought is dramatically
different with our culture. Most of us have some image of Japanese people like they work hard,
they are polite, they avoid the conflict and try to make good business environment, they select
their words carefully and so on. According this information, we can imagine that we might
create good relationship with Japanese people or business man, but otherwise, we have other
consideration like not clearly communication, lack of expression, they do not say no, the
relationship according hierarchy is very strict and so on. For this part, sometime we cannot
know what they think, so in this parts we are discussing about Japanese thought.
Before going into detail, we have to consider the risk of common belief or general theory.
Sometime we have some image about Japanese people, but it does not mean the essence of
them, on the contrary through it we cause misunderstanding of them. So each Japanese person
are different, we are discussing about the cultural trend or similarity of them.
First, we are preventing about communication and conflict resolution style. Generally the
Japanese people are communicating indirectly and they try to avoid the conflict. It mean that
they take to importance in relationship or partnership and they worry enter crack in their
relationship, for that reason they do not prefer communicate directly. They do not hear the topic
that the partner not to be heard and if they need say something they try to say oblately or
carefully. This type of communication is caused because they take a lot of importance in their

personal and/or company image. The image is the key factor of them, so we should try to
communicate carefully with them to make a good relationship and avoid to ask a lot of think
because it can cause crack in relationship. Also we have to guess their thinks because they
does not express directly and in same time they want to be guess for other parts. If the
negotiation does not work well, they will try avoid the communication because they try to resolve
the problem leaving distance with partner, in other word they are waiting until we are noticed.
Second, we need the capability to read the situation (Reliance on words). For example, the
American worker propose to Japanese manager a project, but Japanese manager say it is
difficult, so the American worker assume it like challenge but for Japanese people the word
difficult has a lot of means and in this case the manager describe the difficult like impossible,
for that reason the Japanese manager consider to American worker like a person do not know
read the situation. According this example, we must consider the non-verbal communication
because they are reading the situation using the non-verbal communication like the movement
of the face expression and body, voice tone and so on. For their, Reliance on words is very high,
in other word, they can communicating well using a few words. Sometime we consider them like
a few word communicators but if we want to make good relationship, we will need to adapt and
learn read the situation.
Finally about feedback. When we talk about feedback, we refer about positive and negative
opinion, comment and teaching method that affect the staff. In the case of Japanese people,
they do not praise to the worker for their work because for Japanese people to do good works is
natural, so one indicator if you do good work is if Japanese worker say nothing for your job. But
if you mistake something, they try to explain carefully your mistakes, and this mean the worker
must read the situation and improve for own self. If we work with them and if Japanese partner
do not say nothing (it refer does not say something negative), it is good indicator for us. We
should know this aspect because if we do not know about it, we will feel too bad for their
behavior because they do not pay attention for us, but as we say, it is a good indicator for us
and not bad indicator.
The behavior and factors that we have to consider before, during and after the
negotiation
First, we need consider the following factors to get good or normal image about us. We need
consider to make group or business team according hierarchy defined by age and business
position because it determine the location of the chair and table, turn to speak. And according

their culture, the hierarchy is so important because they have vertical relationship inside of the
company. Also punctuality is other important factor that we must consider, we must arrive
destined place 5 minutes before the scheduled time at a minimum, and the ideal is 15 minutes.
If we hire translator for the negotiation process, they consider it as commitment signal because
the language barrier is too high in Japan and a few Japanese people can speak English well.
Other factor is the greeting, we need greet according social and business states of them.
Traditionally they greet giving professional cards to other party with 45 degree inclining, but also
the Japanese culture are changing and globalize in same time, currently the young people
(around 20 35 years old) prefer gives the professional card and do hand shake instead of
inclining. Otherwise, we also must call their last name followed san (san is the form to
respect their social states, it is similar to Mr., Mrs., Ms. and so on), and we can never call for
their name because it is used only by friends.
If we want to do good relationship approach, one way is giving gift to possible Japanese partner.
It does not mean bribery, it is one way to respect their social states. It is recommend to do when
the meeting is finished. If we give a gift publically, we will respect the hierarchy and business
position of them. When we give a gift to them, we have to give a gift with both hands, also as
Japanese custom, they refuse your gift by several time but it is an act to show our relationship
is greater than a gift, so we must offer a gift until accept it.
The clothing is other important factor to improve our image. Traditionally in Japan works cloth is
formal like dark suit, white shirt, dark tie. We can use our clothing according our business
customs (Japanese business man is very tolerant by foreign business man clothing) but they
take a importance clean appearance of clothing, so we can consider use dark suit, white shirt,
dark tie to get clean appearance of clothing and make a harmony with them.
In the part of negotiation, the professional card represent our personal aspect. So, the
professional card must has good quality with good design and it must be translated in English
as minimum (the best way is translated in Japanese).
During the negotiation, the silence of other party does not mean lack of interest but rather they
in that moment concentrate to think well (sometime they close their eye but it does not mean
lack of interest, for contrary they try to make a good relationship).
After the negotiation, the best way to crate good relationship quickly is inviting the Japanese
people that we negotiate and share our commitment with them. Most of Japanese people speak

a lot of things when they eat and drink something and create good environment and relationship
through it. This is not obligated but is necessary for us to do it to improve our relation.

In conclusion, it is necessary to have information about the country's culture who will negotiate
to facilitate our entry into the market and have no problems. Knowledge is the key to achieving
international trade; we must look to the smallest detail because they can be essential to the
success of a negotiation. In our case, we want to enter the Japanese market through a
restaurant to offer Peruvian food, we must form a friendly relationship because the Japanese
need to feel in confidence to conduct business, seek stability and growth, so we must adapt to
their culture.