

Never say "no." Negotiations, the Japanese way. - KennethMyers
http://techno-anthropology.blogspot.com/2011/08/never-say-no-negotiations-japanese-way.html

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T_S_
I used to design financial products. The New York sales person would usually
say "My customer will not buy that piece of s&#t." The Tokyo salesman would
say. "I will show it to my customer." Then radio silence for a week. Or at
worst, "Hmm... Very difficult". More silence.

After a while I began to appreciate the New York sales people. They saved me
time.

~~~
msbarnett
It's not that they were slower or trying to waste your time with long "radio
silences", it's that they didn't realize that you didn't realize that
"Hmmm...Very difficult" was an upfront, flat-out, "fuck no" in their culture.

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prodigal_erik
[http://www.analytictech.com/mb119/crosscultural_communicatio...](http://www.analytictech.com/mb119/crosscultural_communication.htm)
quotes some of Dave Barry's best on this. "Perhaps you would prefer to take a
train."

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zalew
There's a similar avoidance of negative response in Arabic culture. It's hard
to hear that something can't be done or is impossible to achieve, more likely
someone will assure you that everything is fine and will call back, which
never happens, so don't hold your breath. The reason behind it is "not to make
somebody unhappy". Well, gotta love cultural differences :)

