7/20    Anyone here ever work with a Japanese organization? I find it very
        frustrating! At least with the firm we deal with, although I am
        sure they are very bright based on their achievements, they are
        constantly making small mistakes. Their first course of action is
        always to blame us first! Not once has the error ever been on our
        side once tracked down and yet they always blame us first! And we
        can't tell them that because it would be disrespectful to do so.
        In fact, we have to tell our senior managers to tell their senior
        managers because direct assignment of blame (i.e. your guys
        screwed up) is a no-no, too.  I am frustrated with their way of
        doing business and I find it adversarial, which wouldn't be so bad
        if they weren't the ones always screwing things up and then trying
        to call us on it.
        \_ why give them respect if they don't desever it. let them
           commit sepaku
        \_ Make sure you learn the phrase "Gama Su!, Gama Su!"
           Seriously, this is a free market. You don't have to put up with
           bullshit like this. Switch to another provider/partner. That
           is the beauty of our efficient free market economy.
        \_ Leave messages around saying "You will be crushed by China"
        \_ Which Japanese comapny is that?
        \_ This almost seems like a troll to me, as it appears that the op
           has had to deal with only one firm.  But regardless: isn't this
           how every company/group is?  Playing the passing-the-blame game?
           \_ Not if it's clearly never our problem. If they spent time
              diagnosing it before quickly calling us right away they
              would find the problem themselves. That is, they always find
              the problem themselves, but not before calling us to blame
              us first. It's the cultural thing that bugs me. We can't
              say "Not our problem. Check out your end." because it is
              disrespectful, but they seem to have no problem telling us
              "Please check things out on your end." My management got
              mad at me because their management was upset that we told
              them that the problem was theirs. I was told "You are 100%
              correct, but you can't do that in Japan. You have to tell
              your senior, senior management (way far out of the loop) who
              will relay it to their senior management and then back down
              to people at your level." Is that true or is that a load of crap?
              If that's the way they do business it's a wonder they can
              accomplish anything. There's also a doublestandard, because
              their engineers have no problems telling us the problem must
              be ours even when it never is.
              \_ If they blame you directly, blame them directly. Who cares
                 about the consequences. Why is it you that has to adapt
                 to their customs and not the other way around?
              \_ I hope with the global economy we have, that this is not a
                 widespread case and this company/group is just trying to use
                 the "stupid Americans who don't understand our culture" as
                 an unfair leverage to themselves.  I only know one person
                 who works with a Japanese company on regular basis, and the
                 only complaint he has is how much he is forced to drink
                 whenever he has to have a meeting with them.  Of course,
                 he is Asian, so they may treat him differently.  It's also
                 possible that your manager or his/her manager IS a "stupid
                 American..." and blowing things out of proportion.  Also,
                 is this venture an equal partner venture, or is one company
                 benefitting more from the other?  I am not a Japanese, but
                 I wouldn't expect to have to worry about culture gap/respect
                 issue to come into play at engineer level.  Maybe the guy
                 you "offended" is sleeping with his company exec's daughter
                 or something.  But I still wouldn't blanket the statement
                 to cover the Japanese as a whole if you've only dealt with
                 this one firm.
                 \_ The Japanese are benefitting by this arrangement far
                    more than we are. Also, the reason I used a blanket
                    statement is that other people at work (my management)
                    who deal with the Japanese claim that it's endemic to
                    Japanese culture. I have no experience otherwise,
                    hence my question if anyone else has experience with
                    working with the Japanese.
        \_ If you think that is bad, get Sun, EMC and Veritas in one room
           together and get them to agree who is responsible for an
           outage...
           \_ Or Oracle, Sun, and Veritas.
        \_ Just to be clear: this is not endemic to all Japanese companies,
           nor is it unique to Japanese companies. Unless this company is a
           make-or-break client, screw cultural sensitivity and call them on
           it. --erikred