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The New York Times Business Section

Sunday, July 1, 1990

 

Making Japanese Bosses Stand Up and Applaud

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Learning Japanese has become requisite training for many American executives who have suddenly found themselves answering to Japanese bosses.  Michael Schulhof, president of Sony U.S.A., started studying the language years ago when he first joined the company. Max Chapman Jr. began lessons after he was named co-chairman of Nomura Holding America, Inc., last year.

In addition to improving communications, most of these students are looking to acquaint themselves with Japanese culture and history.  "If you are the C.E.O. of the U.S. subsidiary of a Japanese company, you will probably be supervising many Japanese employees sent here by the parent company, " noted Ken Endo, president of the International Business Education Corporation, which specializes in teaching Japanese to executives.  "You must understand them to help yourself make the best possible team."

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More American executives are studying Japanese.  Mastery is difficult.

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Mr. Voss's efforts have not gone unappreciated.  A few weeks ago, during a meeting with some top Shiseido executives in Tokyo, he addressed the assemblage briefly in Japanese, having practiced his speech feverishly on the plane by listening to it on tape on his Sony Walkman.

"It was just a little speech, you know, 'I'm so glad to be here and meet you all,' that kind of thing," he remembered.  "But I was nervous.  And when I had finished it, they all rose from their seats and applauded me.  I was thrilled."

　

 

The Record Business Section

Wednesday, September 6, 1989

 

There's no telling how many business deals or high-level political negotiations between Japanese and Americans have ended on a sour note because neither side could understand just what the other was trying to say.

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"The world is getting smaller and smaller, so language is very important," Ken Endo (President, ibec language institute) says. "If an American business person comes to Tokyo, if he can't speak Japanese, how can you expect him to communicate with Japanese customers about his products, about his services?  That's a very important point for any businessperson to become successful in a certain country."

More and more Americans are reaching the same conclusion as Japan's economic power grows.  Enrollment in Japanese courses, for instance, has risen dramatically nationwide.

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