You are meeting partners from Japan. You have 30 minutes to build trust across a cultural gap that took generations to form.
Part of
Cross-Cultural Intelligence →
From navigating silence in a Japanese boardroom to managing a team across four time zones — practice reading cultural signals that most professionals miss entirely. The skill that unlocks global relationships.
Skills you'll build
What happens in this story4 scenarios
You're meeting partners from Japan tomorrow and you just realized you don't know the etiquette for exchanging business cards. That's the easy part — the hard part is everything you don't know you don't know.
You extend your hand. They bow. The first three seconds are already a cultural negotiation — and both sides are watching to see who adapts first.
A long silence settles over the meeting. Your instinct is to fill it. Their instinct is to use it. One of you is going to break first — and in this culture, speaking first means losing ground.
The formal meeting is over. Now you're at dinner, and the real relationship-building begins — but the rules have shifted again, and the stakes are somehow higher with chopsticks in your hand.
More stories in this course
View all →Lost in Translation
Something went wrong in the meeting and you are not sure what. Learn to read indirect signals, handle face-saving moments, and repair cultural misreads.
4 scenarios →The Global Team
You manage people in three time zones across four cultures. Everyone is technically aligned. Nobody is actually working together.
4 scenarios →The Negotiation Table
A deal worth everything is on the table. The other party negotiates nothing like you do. Learn to find the deal that works in their framework.
4 scenarios →The First Impression
You are meeting partners from Japan. You have 30 minutes to build trust across a cultural gap that took generations to form.
Start free →4 scenarios · 25 min · No account required to try