American and Japanese business styles differ greatly on the supervisory style, decision-making, management controls, communication, and interdepartmental relations. These differences can be rooted back with each other’s culture, Japanese is more on the paternalism giving rise to the “industrial feudalism”, while Americans are more on individualism that characterizes as personalism.

The Japanese are more inclined to relationships. The manager, is like a “samurai” that watches over his people from the bottom up. He has loyalties and duties to perform over his men and his men in return will also show loyalty and do their duties. The self-esteem of an individual will depend upon the perception of the group. This is also called as the “saving face.” Unlike the Japanese, the American manager is like the “lone ranger cowboy” and his self-perception is based on his own perception unaffected by what other people may think or do. Individuals in American business will just rely on themselves. They are not as inclined with relationships as their duty for others must come second to his/her own duties to perform. The Japanese business is influenced by the group perception while the Americans rely more on their individualism.

The Japanese culture and tradition is preserved in their society and they also follow a strict hierarchy, in the family, in the community and in business. Japanese business patterns are greatly influenced by these culture, tradition and hierarchy. Unlike the Japanese, the American is a nation of immigrants who believes in “the American Dream” that anyone can rise to the top if you just believe and work hard. With all their natural resources, this is not impossible to do. That is why Americans are more inclined to their individualism. This is how they handle and run their business, fast paced and individually. This is the major difference between the two countries, Japan with its collectiveness and America with its individualism.

The strict hierarchy of Japan makes their employees or other lower ranking employees follow their boss and other higher-ranking employees easily. The lower ranking employees submit to those who are higher in the hierarchy. The American business, on the other hand, with their individualistic attitude, can give those in the lower rank a chance to voice out what they think on a certain subject matter.

However, even with the differences in the way these countries do business, this does not mean they can’t successfully conduct businesses with each other. America and Japan has been conducting trades for a long time already. Japan provides technologies, automobiles, and telecommunication to America and Japan is slowly adopting a more westernized culture with the products offered by America to them. The two countries have so many differences between each other. When it comes to tradition and culture, Japan has so many unwritten rules and regulations on it. They differ greatly in the traditions and cultures on how they handle business. It is inevitable that misunderstandings may arise. Both the countries must respect and understand each other’s way of handling and running business. So far the trade between America and Japan has been one of the world’s biggest influences in economy.