Men-Women and Japanese-American Intercultural Communication - Analysis of the Mitsubishi Case
Introduction
It was my first day in high school. Standing alone in the middle of the play ground looking for anyone I know or can talk to, my eyes was searching all over the place. A pretty blond girl standing alone was a scene that, for sure, attracted my attention then. The moment my eyes saw her, my mind started thinking of ways to talk to her. After some time wasted thinking, I saw a girl I know approaching the blond. Not willing to waste such opportunity, I marched forward toward them. We had a nice chat through which I got to know the blond girl. She turned out to be a very nice and friendly French girl who just arrived to Egypt few days ago. Not being able to forget her for the rest of the day even before I sleep, I kept thinking how I would ask her out the next day. After long night hours, morning finally came and I was off to school. Although I though the lines I would open my conversation with her many times, I kept hesitating whether to approach her or not when I saw her the next morning. To my surprise, the moment she saw me, she actually called on me, walked towards me saying hi while giving me a kiss on the cheek. With this, I understood that she actually likes me too and she wouldn’t reject my invitation for going out together. However, I was astonished when she replied “I have a boyfriend”. That was just confusing. To me, the kiss on the cheek was a clear message that I adore you. It was only years later that I understood that for the French, a kiss on the cheek is just saying hi. This kiss just meant totally different things for both of us.
Unfortunately, this intercultural miscommunication does not only happen in personal relationships; it also occurs in many international deals with millions of dollars on stack. One such example is the famous case of Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing in America. In this paper, I will try to analyze the Mitsubishi case as a consequence of intercultural miscommunication between American men and American women cultures, and the Japanese and American cultures.
Mitsubishi Case Summary
Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America (MMMA) started in 1985 as a $500 million 50-50 joint venture, called Diamond-Star, between Chrysler Corporation of the United States and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) ...
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In his 20/20 interview with Diane Sawyer on April 24, 2015, Bruce Jenner came out as a transgender woman, making her interview television’s “highest-ever rated newsmagazine telecast among adults 18-49 and adults 25-54.” Following her highly successful interview, Jenner’s emerging identity was revealed in a Vanity Fair cover interview by Buzz Bissinger. The magazine featured Jenner on its cover page, titled “Call Me Caitlyn” and photographed by Annie Leibovitz—the magazine’s first issue to feature an openly transgender woman. Upon its release, the image garnered immense public attention, and has been noted to mark a cultural shift in our thinking.as one
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...verestimate etiquette! Although your Japanese business partners may look dead serious (and Japanese people usually take work dead-serious...), they also are human and know to laugh... Here is a famous story (not sure it's a true story though...) demonstrating what can happen with exaggerated cultural adaptation:
Littlejohn, S.W., & Foss, K. A. (2009). Genderlect Theory. Encyclopedia of Communication Theory (1st ed., Vol.25, pp. 205-207). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
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