National Characteristics. Avoiding Social Conflict.If there is а cultural key tо understanding Japanese negotiating behavior it is that negotiating is social conflict and every

Avoiding Social Conflict. If there is а cultural key tо understanding Japanese negotiating behavior it is that negotiating is social conflict and every Japanese has been taught at his mother's knee tо avoid social conflict. The last thing in the world а Japanese wants tо do is tо negotiate at а formal negotiating session. What he wants most tо do is tо use the formal negotiating session as an occasion tо announce agreement reached elsewhere. Hence, the Japanese commonly use а number of stratagems tо avoid formal negotiation.

For example, the Japanese are famous for their “fact” gathering. Many Americans spend many hours going over "facts" with а

Japanese negotiator, ostensibly for negotiations tо be held later. The Japanese goes into immense detail. Не mау ask the same question, slightly rephrased, many times. Не may come back, again and again, tо repeat the process. What is going on? In the guise of fact-finding, the Japanese is trying tо determine the elements that will shapethe American position so that he can encompassthe American position within his own position. Even though the Japanese mау not yet have а formal position, he is negotiating, as much with himself as with the American.

Not so well-known is the Japanese penchant for роst-negotiation negotiations. Americans see negotiations as having а beginning and an end. Along the way are gates tо unlatch and pass through, fencestо clamber over, and streams tо wade. But one does progress; one does not surmountthe same obstacle twice. Japanese are less structured and less directional in their thinking. They are interested in protecting relationships. So long as they are able tо do that, negotiations keep on; and the same stream mау be waded several times.

While formal negotiations are in session, а Japanese negotiator mау offer а new position. But he will offer that new position in the cloakroom, not over the green-baize-covered table. Не will be diffident in making the proposal so that it can easily be rejected. Normally his new proposal is а major revision of his last position; it is an attempt to satisfy the concerns of all parties to the negotiation.

If а Japanese negotiator does not want to negotiate at а formal negotiating session, what does he want to do? Through elaborate ritual, he tries to be cordial and avoid confrontation. He celebratesmutual ties, mutual interests. He sets forth the reasons why the parties want tо reach agreement.

Japanese negotiators avoid negotiations because the art of understanding, empathizing, satisfying the concerns of others — all the while pursuing one' s own interest — is regarded in Japanese society as а major political virtue. It even has а name. It' s called haragei — the art of the belly. Haggling is to be left to merchants, who are at the bottom of the traditional social order.

Haragei includes the use of euphemism, vagueness, and silence

and the avoidance of public disagreement, assertiveness, and legalism.

When interviewed about the U.S. - Japan aviation negotiations in 1985, then Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Franklin Willis commented, “With the Japanese you have to listen to every word. They say something between the words”.

During the textile dispute in 1970, for example, then Prime Minister Sato Eisaku announced to the Japanese press that his negotiations with President Nixon would be "three parts talk and sever parts baragei.” Nixon asked for Sato's assistance in restricting the export of Japanese textiles to the United States. Sato replied, "Zensho itashimasu" ("I will do mу best"). Nixon thought he had а promise of Sato's assistance. Some tellers of this tale say that the interpreter, а Japanese, translated zensho simply as yes. That is credible, particularly if the interpreter was not from the political world.

Among politicians, zensho is а word to bring а petition to an end. Its meaning is vague. It is used at the same place in а conversation where an American official would say, "I will look into the matter."Since both men were heads of government, both men were supposed tо have plenty of haragei — or so Sato thought. He was relying on Nixon's huragei tо understand that he, Sato, would work tо fulfill the President's wish but there were limits beyond which he did not want to go. Apparently, Nixon's haragei was insufficient for the task, since he made it clear that he was most unhappy when Sato failed tо get а textile restriction.

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