businessmen take great pride in depending on their belly instead of their head in operating their businesses.
What they are using to guide their approach to business is an accumulation of Japanese wisdom that goes back for centuries—their ability to “read” other people, to get their cooperation and help by intuitively knowing how to approach them, treat them, and react to them, and thus meld them into an effective work group.
Many Japanese believe that it is the strength and power that derives from the use of this “Japanese way” that has made their country so successful economically in the world today. Of course, the Japanese art of the belly is generally effective only when the Japanese are dealing with other Japanese—and is the reason why a Japanese person without extensive international experience feels very uncomfortable in dealing with foreigners. Not being able to “read” foreigners, they cannot anticipate their reactions or be confident in dealing with them.
There is, therefore, a significant amount of constant tension between un-internationalized Japanese and Westerners—tension that disturbs them and tires them.
For a detailed discourse on the “Japanese art of the belly,” see Michihiro Matsumoto’s The Unspoken Way—Haragei: Silence in Japanese Business and Society.
One of the many tools foreigners should master in their dealings with Japanese is how to reduce this tension and make their Japanese contacts feel less strained and less tense when they are together—to make their bellies feel good. One of the most important ways of stroking the hara (hah-rah) of the Japanese is known as heart-to-heart communication.
COMMUNICATING HEART-TO-HEART
A METHOD of communication in Japan that might be described as more refined or more sophisticated than haragei and that plays an equally important key role in dealing with the Japanese is ishin denshin (ee-sheen dane-sheen). This second form of sending and receiving in Japan is often translated as “heart-to-heart communication”—and is what I call “Japanese telepathy.”
While haragei refers to visceral feelings, ishin denshin refers to the traditional philosophy and ethics of the Japanese that make “harmony between hearts” the highest priority in relationships. Adhering to the principle of ishin denshin means never saying or doing anything that would upset a business or personal relationship.
This is another aspect of Japan that in the minds of the Japanese separates them from foreigners and is perceived as both an asset and a handicap. They see it as an advantage when they are dealing with other Japanese, and therefore as one of the reasons why Japan is “superior” to other countries. It is of no value to them and becomes a frustration, however, when they are dealing with foreigners because foreigners are not tuned in to the same cultural wavelength.
Japanese businessmen will frequently say it is difficult to deal with foreigners because they cannot communicate heart-to-heart with them and that their goal is to learn English well enough and learn how foreigners do business well enough to establish an ishin denshin relationship with them.
Foreigners, who often do not have sufficient time to learn the Japanese language and Japan’s business culture to the extent that they can tap into the telepathic wavelength of their Japanese counterparts, can overcome the handicap to some extent by letting the Japanese know they are aware of the “practice” and have their own version which they are endeavoring to make compatible with the Japanese.
Learning some key Japanese-language words and phrases, a degree of Japanese protocol, and an appreciation of some things Japanese (such as Japanese food and singing in karaoke bars) will go a long way in convincing contacts of your claims about ishin denshin.
It will certainly impress a Japanese businessman if, at a first meeting, you make a point of saying you want to develop a relationship with him that will allow you to communicate heartto-heart. Interestingly enough, most of the belly-to-belly and heart-to-heart communication that takes place in Japan occurs in the mizu shobai (me-zuu show-bye), or “water business,” a very insightful euphemism for the night time entertainment trades—something which has also been seen as a particular obstacle for Western women in forming business contacts.
However, a word of advice is in order when it comes to after-hours drinking. It is better to take a page out of the book of many Japanese and not get totally soused during hostess bar outings. On numerous occasions I have been part of Japanese/foreign groups out on the town when one or more of the foreign contingent got sickdrunk and on some occasions passed out, making any form of communication impossible—besides presenting a very negative impression.
Japanese hosts are often relentless in pressing drinks on their foreign guests during hostess bar parties. It is essential that you stay well within your capacity by cutting back sharply after the first few rounds, just sipping the drinks and/or dumping them when nobody is looking, then feigning a degree of drunkenness that keeps you in step with the Japanese side.
If a key Japanese contact leans over and quickly gives you a briefing on the state of your business with him, you want to be able to clearly understand the message and make any appropriate response (even if that is nothing more than nodding your head and thanking him).
The importance of haragei and ishin denshin becomes very clear when you realize that what is not said is often more important than what is said and just as often is the key that opens or locks the door to business.
Learning this form of “Japanese telepathy” is not something one can do quickly or easily. It requires complete immersion in the culture of contemporary Japan, along with a good grasp of the cultural history of the country. This aspect of communication in Japan is one of the primary barriers facing any outsider who attempts to do business with the Japanese and is also why so many foreigners end up having to work through Japanese surrogates to get anything done in Japan.
MANAGEMENT BY INTUITION
GIVEN THE cultural conditioning that results in the Japanese often assigning more importance to feeling than to reasoning, it is not surprising that such things as haragei, or the “art of the belly,” and ishin denshin, or “heart-toheart communication,” play a key role in Japanese management. But on the more refined levels of management in Japan one encounters the ultimate in “managing by intuition.”
The Japanese word used to express the idea of managing by intuition is kongen (kone-gane), which means “root” or “source” in relation to the universe—and may sound like pretty heav y stuff to foreigners who have MBAs instead of MBBs (Masters of Business Buddhism).
Kongen refers to the energy-wisdom that, in Buddhist thought, fuels the universe. According to Buddhist belief, it is accessible to man through meditation, which allows one to tap into the stream of wisdom and energy and make use of it.
Japan’s best-known proponent of kongen was the legendary Konosuke Matsushita, founder of the Matsushita empire (National, Panasonic, etc.). Matsushita attributed his extraordinary success to regularly tapping into the intelligence of the universe and decreed that all Matsushita managers would spend a part of their work period tuned in to the universal mind.
While Matsushita was the most prominent modern-day practitioner of managing by intuitive intelligence, it is the key to the management success of all Japanese companies—although I am tempted to label it “Japanese cultural intelligence,” since it appears inseparable from the Japanese mind-set and traditional social system.
During the 1950s and early 1960s, many Japanese companies made an attempt to convert their management system to the American paradigm. All of the attempts failed,
