Question

The USA and Japan were in negotiations for a period of ten years, (1977 – 1988) over oranges. The Americans had certain goals that they wanted to accomplish in these negotiations. These goals included; exporting of American oranges in the Japanese market, demand that Japan liberalizes its market, and to eliminate the trade barriers in Japan. The Japanese also had their own goals that they wanted to accomplish in the negotiation process. These included; maintaining its positive image outside Japan, avoiding intervention from GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs), and to avoid sanctions from abroad. Initially, the Japanese refused to negotiate right away, and started negotiating only when Americans threatened them that they would take the issue to GATT panel.Using Hofstede’s Model of Cultural Dimensions from our textbook, compare and contrast the cultural differences that might influence both parties.

Based on the cultural differences, develop a culturally responsive negotiation strategy for American negotiators to deal with Japanese negotiators.

Answer 1

The problem describes the clashes that were brought up while trading between the two most influential economies of the world, the United States and Japan. Both the US and Japan have diverse cultural values and differ in their way of carrying trade with the other country. However, one thing that is common between the two is that each country tries to maximize its profits from the other. Hofstede's Model of cultural dimension is one important way to find out the cultural differences between the two countries (the US and Japan), which impact their way of trading with each other.

The Hofstede model highlights the cultural differences between two economies and quantifies them. Hofstede has divided the cultural differences into six major dimensions as: Power Distance Index, Uncertainty avoidance, Individualism vs collectivism, Masculinity vs femininity, Indulgence vs restraint and Long-term variation vs Short-term variation.

In this case, the power-distance (how different are the people of a civilization) is higher for the US as compared to Japan. Japan has been against the ides of having the power.