Value Village ／ Before you come to Japan
This answer is a draft. It stays unpublished until legal review and source verification are complete.
Business visitors to Japan get more advice than they can use — bowing angles, the seating order, the two-handed card. Most of it is nice-to-have. A handful of points genuinely change how a meeting goes, and the rest is forgiven of foreigners who are visibly trying.
| Do | Don't |
|---|---|
| Bring 50–100 for a week of meetings; cards with Japanese on the reverse are appreciated (a print shop in Japan does them in a day, ¥3,000–5,000) | Run out — it reads as unprepared |
| Stand up, exchange one at a time, senior first; offer with both hands, text facing the receiver, say your name and company | Offer with one hand, or slide across the table |
| Receive with both hands, read it (name, title), say "arigatō gozaimasu" or "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" | Pocket it immediately |
| Place received cards on the table in front of you, arranged by seating (top card = most senior), for the whole meeting | Write on it, bend it, put it in a back pocket, or leave it behind |
| Card case (¥1,000–3,000) — cards go in the case afterwards | Wallet or loose in a bag |
| Item | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Time | Arrive 5–10 minutes early; being late even 5 minutes calls for an apology by phone before and in person after |
| Seating | Wait to be shown; guests sit farthest from the door (kamiza), hosts nearest. Sit when invited |
| Order of talk | Small talk (weather, your trip, their city) led by their senior; then agenda. Their team may be silent while the senior speaks — silence is thinking, not disagreement |
| Decisions | Rarely made in the room. Proposals are circulated beforehand (nemawashi) and approved by a ringi (circular sign-off). Send materials 3–5 days before; expect "we will consider it" (検討します), which is often a soft no or "not yet" |
| Yes | "Hai" means "I'm listening", not "I agree". Look for specific next steps as the signal |
| Interpreters | Speak in short sentences, pause; address the counterpart, not the interpreter |
| Materials | Printed handouts for everyone (still common), detailed and numeric; Japanese counterparts read slides closely |
| Ending | The host may see you to the elevator or building entrance and bow until the doors close — turn and bow back |
| Follow-up | Email thanks the same day; detailed minutes are valued |
[Verify] Etiquette norms are editorial synthesis; verify Cool Biz period and any JETRO guidance wording before publication.
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https://www.jetro.go.jp/en/invest/setting_up/
https://web-japan.org/
https://ondankataisaku.env.go.jp/coolchoice/coolbiz/
⚠️ Editorial note: the source URLs above were identified by search. Our working environment cannot reach go.jp domains, so the contents have not been checked against the text. Verify every source before publication and record who checked it and when.
What we share here are ideas and everyday practices passed down among people living in Japan, together with general information drawn from public sources. They are not official recommendations, and they are not professional instruction. Practices vary between households and regions.
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