Negotiation Skills Training

What is negotiation?

There is always a situation where you have to negotiate with customers or stakeholders in business world. "Negotiation" often tends to be mistaken as the process of a discussion or diplomacy with others. However, we believe that the real meaning of "negotiation" includes "producing a result" of realizing aims and intentions.
However, in business world, "negotiation" should not be achieved by force beating the opponent with strong words since your opponents of negotiations are mostly stakeholders whom you need to maintain good business connections even after the negotiation. Successful negotiation is to get your opponents' full acceptance and even secure their share of benefits if possible, apart from ensuring your own benefits.

Notes when negotiating in Japan－The differences in communication and business culture

Naturally, non-Japanese employees of foreign affiliates and multi-national companies in Japan would often encounter negotiation situations with Japanese people and Japanese companies. You may be bewildered with the Japanese business culture and the Japanese communication style that are different from those of your own countries. You may often find your negotiation skills that were effective in your home countries useless in Japan.
For example, Japanese people prefer using ambiguous expressions such as “Zensho shimasu(I’ll do my best to meet your expectation.)” instead of “No” when rejecting. It is often heard that non-Japanese are confused and find it difficult to interpret such an ambiguous expression as “Zensho shimasu” . They just don’t understand whether it is okay to continue the negotiation or not. Japanese people rarely say “No” to avoid negative opinions and direct strong expressions that may hurt the other party since they value “harmony” the most.

For another example, it sometimes happens that non-Japanese are surprised to find that a Japanese negotiating partner has no authority of decision-making after they got the partner’s approval and rejoiced at the success of a negotiation. And the negotiation was left unsettled for a long time while an approval document is circulated among several executives. That is because Japanese companies have established a system to decentralize decision-making responsibilities among a number of executives who have the authority of decision-making since they value “teamwork” more than “individual”. Thus it is necessary to take not only a person or department in charge but also the executives or whole the organization into consideration as the negotiation partner.
As mentioned above, your excellent negotiation skills have no use unless you understand the Japanese way of communication and the Japanese business culture.

Practical knacks for successful negotiation in Japan

You will learn not merely negotiation theories but also practical knacks for successful negotiation encompassing the features of Japanese communication and Japanese organizations in our negotiation training. And you will acquire practical skills as well as knowledge through intensive role-play on actual business cases.

＜Process＞
・What is negotiation?
　The aim of a negotiation－Win-Win result
・Japanese communication and Japanese business culture
　Questions frequently raised in negotiations with Japanese people
・Preparation for a negotiation
　Research and scenario-making
　Making materials
・Actual negotiation
　Let the negotiation partner speak.
　Convince him.
・Role play (case studies)