<p>(CNN) &#8212; Akio Toyoda&#8217;s appearance before U.S. legislators on Wednesday represents not just a fact-finding mission by committee members and a public relations move by Toyota, but a clash of cultures that in many ways created the recall controversy.</p>
<p>&#8220;They turned a rather ordinary recall into a brand-threatening crisis,&#8221; said Jeff Kingston, a professor of Asian studies at Temple University&#8217;s Japan campus in Tokyo.</p>
<p>Indeed, a key reason why Toyoda is in the hot seat is because the company leadership responded in a very Japanese fashion, Japan watchers say.<!--more--></p>
<p>&#8220;Their decision-making process was painfully slow, but the international media and concerned customers don&#8217;t want to wait so long for answers,&#8221; Kingston said. &#8220;Anytime the public hears &#8216;brake&#8217; and &#8216;problem&#8217; in the same sentence, they want quick answers.&#8221;</p>
<p>Toyoda&#8217;s long silence as the company deliberated what to do is a hallmark of the Japanese culture of consensus building.</p>
<p>&#8220;The decision-making process is really the planning process in Japan &#8212; you don&#8217;t see a lot of rapid response to a strategic issue,&#8221; said Michael Alan Hamlin, president of Team Asia, which provides communications advice to multinational companies.</p>
<p>Difficult, too, will be how Toyoda handles hostile questioning, especially since most of his public experience has been before a largely deferential Japanese press.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is a huge difference in how Japanese media cover companies,&#8221; said Hamlin, who lived in Japan for a decade. &#8220;They are careful not to upset or annoy business leaders too much, because they don&#8217;t want their access to information or press conferences blocked because of negative reporting.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the West, you take Microsoft, Google or GM &#8212; once they are big, successful companies, they are targets (of aggressive media),&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s the trade-off for visibility and success.&#8221;</p>
<p>How the two audiences &#8212; American and Japanese &#8212; view Toyoda&#8217;s performance may be very different because of cultural differences in body language.</p>
<p>&#8220;Japanese when in an apology mode &#8212; especially before an authority like the U.S. Congress &#8212; will be very humble. That means, you don&#8217;t necessarily look people in the eye,&#8221; said Deborah Hayden, Tokyo managing partner of Kreab &; Gavin Anderson Worldwide, a communications consultancy. &#8220;From a Western perspective, that can be mistaken as weakness or perhaps trying to hide something.&#8221;</p>
<p>Also, Japanese language tends to be indirect &#8212; whereas before the committee members are likely to pepper him with direct questions and &#8220;be a bit of political theater,&#8221; Hamlin added.</p>
<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s got to walk a very fine line of polite respect &#8212; which Japanese have in bucket loads &#8212; and the confidence of being head of one of the largest, most respected companies in the world,&#8221; Hayden said.</p>
<p>Read the original article <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/02/24/money.toyoda.culture.clash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.</p>

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