American managers are often chosen to lead teams because they have a track record of delivering results. They know how to build teams, solve problems, and make decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet many arrive in Japan and quickly find themselves asking questions they never expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Why doesn’t anyone raise concerns during meetings?” “Why do people agree with my proposal, only for issues to surface later?” “Am I really hearing what my team thinks?” “What is really going on?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are understandable questions. The temptation is to chalk every challenge up to cultural differences between Americans and Japanese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reality is more nuanced.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Before an American manager ever joins a Japanese organization, communication patterns already exist. Employees have already learned what feels safe to say, when to say it, and sometimes whether saying anything at all is worth the risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, every leader steps into an existing communication environment. The first challenge isn’t changing it, but rather, to understand it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking Beneath the Surface<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of the development of my Global Team Dynamics program, I’ve been reviewing research on workplace communication in Japan. This is so the program is built on what I’ve researched and what I’ve personally experienced, rather than on anecdotes alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One large-scale study by Persol Research and Consulting surveyed 6,000 employees across Japan, and the findings are worth every international manager’s attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than half of employees reported that during manager one-on-ones and team meetings, they express less than 20% of what they’re really thinking. Even more striking, roughly half said they don’t have a single person at work they feel they can speak honestly with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether those numbers surprise you or not, they point to something important: many communication challenges begin long before an international manager ever arrives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gap Leaders Don’t Always See<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps the most revealing finding was the gap in perception between employees and senior leaders. Employees generally felt they were unable to communicate openly, while senior leaders believed communication within the organization was already healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As leaders, we naturally judge communication by what we see and hear. Our teams experience communication by what they feel comfortable saying. Those two realities don’t always overlap, and when they don’t, it becomes difficult to know what actually needs to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One Other Wrinkle the Study Doesn’t Cover<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As a foreign manager leading teams in Japan, there’s another layer to this: language. I’ve worked with many foreign managers whose assistants became the main conduit for every exchange between the local team and the manager. In some of those situations, the assistant’s job wasn’t just to translate the words. It was to translate intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember one case where, whenever directors held 1:1s with their middle managers, the managers spoke with a level of formality the assistant herself found unnatural. It’s the kind of dynamic a foreign manager might never notice, or might notice and not know what to do with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n