“Japanese people are bad at discussion”. This is well-known facts among the people who discussed with Japanese. Japanese national traits and their characters that value cooperativeness with other people is said to be the reason. But this is not only the reason but we Japanese are really not good at communicating interactively with each other.
For example, dissenting opinions I often see is like “he (who assert a opnion) is not good educational background”, “his personal history has built this stupid theory and thoughts.” “He is not a Japanese but he is a Korean who pretends to be a Japanese and he tries to let it be known in the world that Japan is a shit country with his propaganda.”
There are thousands of news media online these days, I could see people exchange barren discussion on comment sections of websites. I know it goes to the wrong place if I compare low quality discussion which is rather we should call it as just a quarrel and discussion to pursue high level of awareness finding one firm solution.
However, if you see the commet section of Youtube videos, you probably understand what I meant and Japanese people’s tendecy towards discussion. They are not really constructive.
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Agreement is justice
You may be a contrarian and want to indicate discrepancies on the discussion to make a balance between dissenters and concenters. Those people like you are really surprised so many people join a discussion not to find one solution or make one decision but to set the stage for currying favor with upper management on the premise that every single employee agree on any of topics in Japan. After all, decisions are all up to an upper management and it ends up postponing the decisions because it doesn’t remove completely its doubts on discussion thanks to perfect everybody’s consensus. So meeting is always meaningless and just wastes people’s precious time.
When you cut your dissenting opinion in a discussion that has 90% of agreement from participants, you are a target to denounce and nobody accept your constructive ideas. So suggesting something different will be on the way to backing yourself into a corner from the discussion. Sometimes you are under abusive attack on a your character from someone to talk to as if everyone force you to agree on a subject by reading between the lines from what the atmosphere concludes a subject.
Sentimental argument is an orthodox method on discussion?
It is pretty natural thing that pros and cons about opinions and humanity need to be thought separately because there is a case that your very good friend can have a overwhelmingly different sense of value from yours. In other words, someone who you don’t like has really the same opinion as yours.
Even so, there are so many Japanese people can’t think opinions and humanity separately and tend to give weigh on sentimental argument without knowing it.
Previously, Koike Tokyo governor postponed her decision of the issue of moving the Tsukiji fish market to Toyosu because she said “Toyosu is a safe place but not a place where we can be at ease.”
Koike’s logic is pretty much significant Japanese sentimental argument.
Why Japanese people prioritize their emotional aspects on discussion?
Japanese people tend to approach meeting or conference with an attitude of focusing their attention on a emotional argument rather than on objective argument to reach one solution by building reasonable logics with different opinions. For example,
- I can’t trust your opinion because he is such an unfaithful person who have an affair
- Such a manner of speaking hurts me
These phenomenons come from the Japanese unique way of thinking like “strong peer pressure” and “reading between the lines”
Because everyone approaches meeting or conference on the premise that everyone has the same thoughts, people having the same opinions form a faction and attack minorities.
A contrarian who disagree on a subject on which everyone agree is a nuisance and a enemy who disharmonise everyone’s motivation.
With train of thought, people have no mercy to attack enemies and end up going to extreme logic like “he is wrong because I am right”. As long as people with different opinions are enemies, mutual arguments end up without any progress but convincing their opinions are right more and more strongly. This is a simply quarrel of applying their pressures each other.
If the argument has a theme which is capable of making it clear whether something is right or wrong, sentimental style may be allowed sometimes, However, the most of issues talked about in a modern society has no exact solution. We are required to find solutions from multiple viewpoints to get it closer to the better answer through discussion. But very few Japanese realize this point.
How can you discuss Japanese to reach one conclusion?
To get an answer closer to the better one, people need to recognize the process to a correct answer as mathematics.
In Japan, Japanese education doesn’t give priority to telling children the importance of the process of argument to find one solution by crushing many different opinions.
Until Japanese society realize this importance essentially, it needs a long time. So taking this opportunity, you should learn Japanese non-productive sentiment discussion to play your cards well in the office in Japan.
Do the ground work that approval holders can easily conclude a decision in a meeting because a meeting or a conference are the place where people pretend to discuss aggressively and only confirm mutual agreement about listed subjects.
So if you want to acquire the approval of your suggesting plan as one project, you should already start moving right after announcement of the meeting. You suggest your plan to approval holders as if your project has already begun. If you go for feedbacks to these people frequently, their decision will lean to your plan by the last presentation in a meeting.
In my opinion, giving up asking participants for constructive discussion, you should make the most of groundwork to persuade any approval holders involved with the meeting. You should learn the politics to know how you can play your cards very well in a Japanese society.
I know there are a lot of things you might complain about because of different cultural background and unproductive solution. But for the time being, until Japanese society accept and introduce logical discussion method, you need to follow the Japanese business custom. otherwise, you back yourself into a corner of your office and end up making a decision to quit your post.