Intercultural Business Relationships.
Japanese business culture is quite deeply rooted in historical customs as well as traditionally exemplifying a high-context culture where-in "most of the meaning is either implied" (Lustic & Koester, 2010) or already known; "duty, loyalty, bravery, and proper etiquette are deemed most important" (Chu, 1992). Such being the Japanese business culture's inclination, the process of attempting to establish and maintain one's intercultural business associations is quite a delicate matter. American business culture on the other hand tends to be quite dynamic: changing to best fit current needs, and very low-context, valuing straight forwardness. Japanese business culture places a high value on the maintenance of business relationships, so much so that the Japanese "view relationship building with their suppliers as part of their daily responsibilities" (Lohtia, Bello, & Porter, 2009). While Americans do attribute significant merit in maintaining business relationships, it is not prioritized to the same level as the Japanese. Thus one's ability to orient one's self in such a manner as to avoid the common pitfalls in establishing and maintain an American-Japanese business relationship is an invaluable skill of cross-cultural business. .
Trust.
Above all else in a broad stroke style perspective, trust seems to be the key-determining factor of successful Japanese business relationships, especially those taking place in a cross-cultural manner such as that between American and Japanese companies; as such developing trust between one's self and their Japanese counter parts is integral to the relationship development. Many of the cultural taxonomies described by Geert Hofstede of the Japanese culture predispose them to highly value trust especially in business relationship context. Hofstede's taxonomies of the United States similarly peg trust as a virtue in business relationships, but without the deep historical roots of the Japanese.
