Health Snacks and Toka Foods formed a joint venture four years ago. Health Snacks was looking for opportunities to enter the Japanese market, and Toka Foods wanted to be well positioned in Japan and get some new technologies. However, the time went by and both sides became uneasy. They started to blame each other for discrepancies in their project. Health Snacks had tried to solve the problem. The negotiation had been very difficult and took a lot of time. The Japanese were slow and deliberate in their negotiation. Every time they got their solution, it was discussed again and again. Since Toka Foods want to have new line technology, Health Snacks sent some engineers to take care of technical issues. However, whenever engineers brought detailed reports, diagrams, the Japanese side procrastinated what to do. It took several times to reach the final decision; the ownership of the joint venture was equally divided. The joint venture was finally called ˜Hana'. Everything had been perfect ì-‰ãthe nomination of vice president, and technical director. However, the nomination of the president generated a problem. Mr. Carter received the mail in which the Japanese side already nominated the president without any discussion. Mr. Carter wanted to nominate Mr. Katsuki because he had had literal work experiences. Mr. Katsuki had done impressive work at Health Snacks headquarters. Mr. Carter thought he would be the best person for the president position because he has not only excellent work performance but also proficiency in English. eahHowever, The Japanese board of directors decided to nominate Mr. Ota as the president because he had been committed to the company. So, because of their different thinking, they had problems to solve.
Question 1: What are the underlying cultural issues?.
In this case, there existed two business cultures. These are American culture and Japanese culture and these two cultures are quite different.