Module 1: Successful personal integration in Japan

1. Cross-cultural awareness: the key to a successful expatriation

• Taking stock of one's own cultural baggage
• Culture shock and the integration process
• Identifying and going beyond cultural stereotypes

2. Key aspects of Japanese culture

• An extremely densely populated chain of islands including numerous ethnic groups
• A thousand-year empire proud of its history and its civilisation
• The world’s 3rd largest economy
• A society based on secular order

3. Japanese values and behaviour patterns

• Deference to hierarchy and its many nuances
• Honour and a sense of duty: the notions of giri  and saving face
• Discipline, patience and precision
• A respect for rules and order
• The collective mentality: pooling individual skills and assets
• Changes in modern Japanese thinking
• Japanese women at the dawn of a golden age

4. Practical day-to-day information in Japan

• Focus on the host town or city
• Transport, administration, housing, security, hygiene and healthcare
• Life in the suburbs: shops and businesses, koban, the local neighbourhood
• Learning to speak Japanese
• Social life, leisure activities, schools, extracurricular activities, sport

Module 2: Successful professionnal integration in Japan

1. The Japanese corporate world

• Conglomerates or Keiretsu to respond to the outsiders and Gaishi. 
• Small businesses, a dense and highly effective network
• The nemawashi:  Consultation... Japanese-style
• The paternalistic model in a new westernized society; the old generation and the new.
• The ambiguous nature of the Japanese salaryman
• The Kaizen: the notion of quality as a process of continuous improvement

2. Effective communication in Japanese environments

• The sound of silence: deciphering messages
• The subtleties of verbal communication, choosing the right interpreter
• Japanese writing: the empire of the hieroglyph
• Perfecting your greeting skills: the many variations of the oijigi

3. Working with Japanese teams

• Building confidence: the idea of give and take
• Building and maintaining your own personal network
• Out of office activities: unwinding and relaxing outside work

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Japanese

• Identifying decision makers and intermediaries
• Respect for protocol: keeping waiting times to a minimum
• Japanese contracts: the scope for never ending negotiation

5. Final handy tips

• Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code
• Avoiding offhandedness: displaying prudence, patience and humility
• Humour: a double-edged sword