Negotiation Styles Japan vs Usa

Negotiation Styles
Japanese vs. United States
The globalization of business has allowed organizations to do joint ventures in another country, create multinational enterprises, source resources from the other side of the world and sell products to new markets. In doing business with another country global managers must deal with cross-cultural negotiation. Negotiation is defined as a voluntary process by which the involved parties could reach an agreement on common business matters.   Global managers can benefit from studying differences in negotiation behaviors and the reasons for them, which allows them to recognize what is happening in the negotiation process.
Two countries with very different business and negotiation styles are Japan and The United States (US). John Graham, a California professor who has studied international negotiating styles, says that the differences between American and Japanese styles are well illustrated by their respective proverbs: the American believes that “the squeaking wheel gets the grease,”   and the Japanese say that “the pheasant would not be shot but for its cry.”
The Japanese are calm, discreet, patient negotiators; they are accustomed to long, meticulous negotiating sessions. Whereas Americans often rush straight to the matter at hand, the Japanese want instead to develop long-term, personal relationships. The Japanese want to get to know those on the other side and will spend some time in non- task interactions; general polite conversation and informal communication before meetings (nemawashi).
Equality is strongly valued in the United States but it is less important in Japan. Therefore it seems that when conducting a business negotiation with Japanese, the first thing to do is to find out their position. In order to identify who has the higher social status and where could they fit within the people involved in the negotiation.
The US is a very individualistic society, people feel little need for dependency on...