Cultural sensitivity critical to Japanese | The Honolulu Advertiser

Comment, blog & share photos

Cultural sensitivity critical to Japanese | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Posted on: Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Cultural sensitivity critical to Japanese

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Consultant Tim Sullivan offered some simple advice on improving the experience for Japanese visitors in Hawai'i: "Try very hard not to make promises you can't keep."

Sullivan, who has spent more than 30 years doing business with the Japanese, has worked as a consultant for a variety of companies, including Toyota, Honda, Sony, Panasonic and Kyoya/Sheraton Hotels in Hawai'i.

As Hawai'i's No. 1 private industry nervously eyes a recent drop in the number of visitors from Japan, officials are looking for more clues to luring and keeping an important tourist market that's proved vital for decades.

Sullivan offered positive examples of how to be culturally sensitive. And he offered a to-the-point list of major complaints that visitors from Japan have about American businesses:

"We don't always keep our promises." He explained that a broken promise would include a hotel, airline or rental car company overbooking, which leaves customers without service they expected.

"We don't apologize when we break a promise." He suggests: "Apologize profusely and repeatedly."

"We make excuses." Sometimes, Americans will explain that a customer's problem is out of their hands or "not my job." The more culturally effective path would be to act immediately to solve a problem. He pointed to a particularly abject Japanese phrase of apology — moshi wake gozaimasen — which includes the admission that the problem that prompted the apology is "inexcusable."

Sullivan spoke yesterday to a group of mostly visitor industry officials and employees in Waikiki. He is the founder of Japan Interface, a cross-cultural consulting firm "dedicated to connecting Japan and the United States."

The Japan-America Society of Hawaii and the Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce jointly sponsored the luncheon and lecture at the Hale Koa Hotel.

Sullivan emphasized that he was generalizing to make his points, and providing broad themes not absolutes. And he offered some encouragement that the Japanese are becoming more interested in authentic Hawai'i experiences, including the phenomenal popularity in Japan of hula and the 'ukulele.

He also reminded the audience that Japanese rely on word-of-mouth recommendations and won't complain directly if they believe they've received bad service. "If you don't treat them right, they'll tell all their friends and never come back," he said.

He said Japanese believe Americans aren't as observant or proactively considerate as they could be. "We lack kikubari," Sullivan said.

To show someone demonstrating kikubari, Sullivan said he was staying in Japan and walked to a meeting at a hotel on a hot, humid summer day. When he arrived, he was sweaty and sat to await the meeting. Without knowing if he was meeting a guest, without asking or waiting to be asked, a hotel employee brought him a cup of barley tea and an oshibori (wet hand towel).

He also pointed to some practical tips:

Aging demographic: 1 in 5 Japanese are age 60 and older.

Japanese businesses pride themselves on consistently good service. He said he knows what to expect on Japanese airlines while on American airlines the service varies wildly: "Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's horrible, sometimes it's mediocre."

"Our service is too slow."

"We speak in a disrespectful tone to customers."

Sullivan opened his talk on Japanese expectations of customer service with a popular expression from Japan: "Humility is beautiful."

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos