American Company to Do Business in the Japanese Market

Since World War II, Japan and the United States have gradually developed a more normal working relationship, including a business relationship. In recent decades, this normalization has been attributable in significant part to the willingness of the Japanese to open their borders truly for the first time in their history, "to step outside of their cultural confinement and finally relate, in some way, to other people and other countries" (DeMente, 1993, p. 1). Boye Lafayette DeMente (1993) notes, "During the 1980s, almost half of the entire population of Japan traveled abroad" (p. 1). One of the results of this extensive national exposure to other cultures has been a new Japanese willingness to accept Western approaches to doing business and a new Japanese hunger for American products.

However, the Japanese market remains a separate case for American marketers. Christalynn Brannen and Tracey Wilen (1993), in their handbook showing American businesswomen some of the pitfalls of working in a male-dominated society, caution, "Extrapolating from one's own culture to another is a big mistake" (p. 12). The overwhelmingly male bureaucracy within Japanese business is one important facet important to any understanding of the culture.

Marketing in any situation is a complex and difficult art which must be flexible enough to adjust to new situations and demands. An American marketer faced with the challenge of introducing products into a dramatically different culture must take care to study the new market, learn from mistakes, and engage assistance from those who are part of the target market. Japan offers remarkable opportunities for those willing to take the time to understand this fascinating culture and the ways in which it differs from Western markets.

The United States as a whole maximizes consumption and recreation, pursues instant gratification, extols the spirit of the individual, and adheres to a belief in the glory of the free market. Japan as a whole opts to work, to save, to sublimate the self to the interests of the larger group, to plan and to sacrifice for the long run, and to adhere to an economic system based primarily on enhancing the size and power of entrenched domestic interests (p. 3).

The four primary components of a successful marketing mix, product, price, place, and promotion, are usually analyzed as distinct elements in Western marketing. Johansson and Nonaka (1996) write, "Given the lack of functional specialization in the Japanese corporation, such separation is not considered useful. A strong hierarchical relationship among the four P's makes it necessary to take the decisions in the correct order" (p. 104).

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