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The Work Ethic Of Canada

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The work ethic of Japan could not be more different to the work ethic of Canada. Japanese culture is very different from the Canadian. All aspects of Japanese life, especially business relations, are governed by strict rules of etiquette. A foreign business person who is either ignorant of, or insensitive to, Japanese customs and etiquette needlessly jeopardizes his company's prospects in this country. It goes without saying that the Japanese work ethic and culture greatly affect doing business with other nations in this way. In the following, the most important features of Japanese culture and work ethic will be discussed, and the consequences of neglecting those features as a Canadian business person will be analyzed. A very important …show more content…

And the fact that it has nothing to do with your Japanese ability or the effort you are making as a successful businessperson to respect the other country¡¦s culture. To the Japanese, they are not consciously looking down on you, but rather trying to establish rapport through bombarding you with things they think you like to hear. It's important not to get upset about this and just play humble by denying the praise over and over as they would. All of that is relatively benign. The real problem is dealing with the occasional ¡¥Neanderthal¡¦ where even if you've attained near native fluency they still have a "See-White-Face, Hear-Japanese, Does-Not-Compute" mentality, or the elitist complaining how foreigners never bother to learn Japanese, and then you come along speaking proper Japanese and they insist in doing all communication in English. The reason being that more conservative types see language as race, and race as language, and when there is someone not part of the group suddenly among "us", they unconsciously feel a threat. Dealing with such groupthink is a challenge for every business men entering the Japanese market, but while you never have to like it you're going to have to deal with it. Many Japanese view westerners on two levels -- if you are taken as a temporary visitor, they nearly always treat you extremely warmly and helpfully; even lavishly (Japanese Culture ¡V A primer for

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