For foreign business people, Japanese seem to quiet or/and lack of participation in multicultural meetings.

There would be several or mixed reasons;

  • People do not have high confidence in their English and have a tendency to remain silent
  • People speak official line and withhold their true intention or personal opinion in official meetings
  • People wait for upper hierarchy’s opinion which would be the company’s opinion for them
  • People feel that it is impolite to interrupt
  • The meetings are too fast to develop his or her opinion with the reason and the conclusion