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USING THE ART OF THE BELLY

NONVERBAL communication and intuition play a significant role in all personal relations in Japan, including all facets of business. This phenomenon is, of course, a direct outgrowth of a highly sophisticated and stylized culture that is over two thousand years old—a culture in which physical etiquette routinely took precedence over all other considerations.

As the centuries passed and the Japanese became more and more homogenized creatures of a monocultural society, packed into a tiny area, living in extended families, and working in consensus-controlled groups, verbal communication became superfluous in many of the common situations of life. To a remarkable degree, everybody thought very much alike, behaved in the same highly controlled manner, and reacted herd-like in virtually all situations.

While this degree of cultural conditioning certainly no longer exists in Japan, enough of it remains in the language, in the common education, and in the common life and work experiences that “communicating without talking” is still ranked high among the characteristic qualities that the Japanese ascribe to themselves.

One area of “Japanese expertise” that plays a key role in business in Japan is known as haragei (hah-rah-gay-e) or “the art of the belly.” This refers to making decisions on the basis of gut feeling—a visceral reaction to an individual or proposal or situation. Many older Japanese businessmen take great pride in depending on their belly instead of their head in operating their businesses.

What they are using to guide their approach to business is an accumulation of Japanese wisdom that goes back for centuries—their ability to “read” other people, to get their cooperation and help by intuitively knowing how to approach them, treat them, and react to them, and thus meld them into an effective work group.

Many Japanese believe that it is the strength and power that derives from the use of this “Japanese way” that has made their country so successful economically in the world today. Of course, the Japanese art of the belly is generally effective only when the Japanese are dealing with other Japanese—and is the reason why a Japanese person without extensive international experience feels very uncomfortable in dealing with foreigners. Not being able to “read” foreigners, they cannot anticipate their reactions or be confident in dealing with them.

There is, therefore, a significant amount of constant tension between un-internationalized Japanese and Westerners—tension that disturbs them and tires them.

For a detailed discourse on the “Japanese art of the belly,” see Michihiro Matsumoto’s The Unspoken Way—Haragei: Silence in Japanese Business and Society.

One of the many tools foreigners should master in their dealings with Japanese is how to reduce this tension and make their Japanese contacts feel less strained and less tense when they are together—to make their bellies feel good. One of the most important ways of stroking the hara (hah-rah) of the Japanese is known as heart-to-heart communication.