Yes, Virginia, Japan's a Bit Different From Here

Lexus is a fantastically successful luxury car brand in the United States, but Toyota (which owns Lexus) is having a difficult time establishing it in Japan. It was only introduced there in 2005, and, according to a front-page article in today's Wall Street Journal ("The Samurai Sell: Lexus Dealers Bow to Move Swank Cars", p. A1 -- yes, I know that half of the moderately interesting things that I write about come from articles in the Journal; my existence is circumscribed), it's struggling to get traction. BMW and Mercedes-Benz have a stranglehold on the Japanese luxury car market, and most Japanese associate Lexus with the middle-brow cars from Toyota that dominate the market in less-expensive cars. So Toyota has tried a number of tactics to dissociate Lexus from the larger Toyota brand and to compete with BMW and Mercedes. Some of them sound like things that a company might do in the United States. For example, because of the price of real estate in urban Japan, most car dealers have minuscule showrooms and do most of their sales via home visits, but Lexus has opened a number of spacious and luxuriously-appointed showrooms. But other tactics are, well, very Japanese. Lexus sends its employees to a three-day etiquette training course at Fuji Lexus College, where they learn elaborate, traditional Japanese etiquette. This etiquette, at least as interpreted by Lexus, calls for them to

[point] with all five fingers to the [car door handle], right hand followed by left. Then, [they] gracefully [open] the boor with both hands, in the same way Japanese samurais in the 14th century would have opened a sliding screen door.

Sound a little odd? Well, consider how Lexus salesman serve potential clients coffee or tea:

When serving coffee or tea, employees must kneel on the floor with both feet together and both knees on the ground. The coffee cup must never make a noise when placed on the table.

Can you imagine the awkwardness if someone did this for an American client? The point is not to hold the Japanese up to ridicule. After all, I'm sure that we have more than a few etiquette norms that would mystify and amuse the Japanese. The point is that despite the similarities in our economic systems and material accouterments, we're still very different from one another.