Risk management, although is not essential for Chinese negotiation is also related to the use of intermediaries. Therefore, until the negotiation is done with the most important people to have connections with the issue at hand, there are numerous discussions and negotiation meetings with intermediary people. This is also a technique to reduce surprises at the table of negotiation.
The Japanese risk management system is very peculiar because, as its Asian neighbors, the Japanese rarely take risks. They are very calculated negotiators. The politeness which is often misread, most of the times fails to betray any type of emotion or body language fault. In terms of decisions to be taken, "consistent with the culture-based value of maintaining harmony, the Japanese are likely to be evasive or even leave the room rather than give a direct negative answer. Fundamental to the Japanese culture is a concern for the welfare of the group; anything that affects one member or part of society affects the others. Thus, the Japanese view decisions carefully in light of long-term consequences; they use objective, analytic thought patterns; and they take time for reflection" (Business Management Class Online, 2010).
The Japanese risk management is most of the time nonexistent from a very simple point-of-view. The Japanese are very calculated, similar to their Chinese neighbors. Japanese negotiators do not take risks. They are very tied to their prepared negotiation strategies and very rarely move away from it. Given their prepare-in-advance techniques, they are rarely surprised and when they are, they prefer to take their time and reschedule the negotiation meeting. From this point-of-view, Japanese negotiators are by no means fast paced negotiators. Therefore, in terms of risk management, they chose to be silent and give their partners the chance to make the first steps.
The decision making process is a very difficult one and it entangles different sets of words in particular. For the American side, it has been a wide subject on the actual meaning of "no."...
However, to the American negotiator to use it, it may imply many different things. More precisely "Conversely, a U.S. negotiator may say "no" to a proposal due to a misunderstanding of the proposal or because the U.S. negotiator has assumed that the proposal included things that the non-U.S. party did not intend. It is incumbent upon the U.S. lawyer to explain that U.S. negotiators frequently take a hard-line approach that obscures what is, in reality, a willingness to keep negotiating. Similarly, the negotiator has to be sure to understand what does or does not really mean "no" in other cultures, and how to explore possible avenues of renegotiation when the message and the reality are at odds" (Lourie, 2002). Therefore, in the process of decision making, the other side must clearly take into account the potential meaning of a "no" when negotiating with an American.
Both Japanese and Chinese negotiators take very much time to decide on the issues at hand. However, this time is considered before the actual negotiation meeting. Both of them invest time and energy in creating long-term relationships rather than focusing on the actual deal at hand. This in turn makes them calculated and very difficult to handle if not treated according to their own cultural background and practices.
References
Business Management Class Online. Understanding Negotiation Styles. 2010. Available at http://www.businessmanagementclassonline.com/businessmanagement-125-economic-understanding-negotiation-styles.html
Lourie, Jonathan M. Negotiation American Style. The Practical Lawyer. 2002. Available at http://www.eapdlaw.com/files/News/75be5d11-9333-48e0-9a69-79af66607c66/Presentation/NewsAttachment/18563c26-4a71-4691-adbb-7f3b37226c67/media.148.pdf
Matano, Kagechika. "Chinese Negotiating Styles: Japan's Experience." Center Occasional Paper Asia-Pacific Center For Security Studies Honolulu, Hawaii December 1998. Available at http://www.apcss.org/Publications/Ocasional Papers/OPChinese.htm
