“Uh Oh, When Will These Hit Our Walmart?!”

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A new trend in the world of fashion has rapidly diffused across the Japanese society, and they are known as Japanese knickers.

These are not see-through skirts, but rather prints on the skirt to give the allusion that the panties are visible.

These pieces of clothing are even being worn in the workplace, which points out that their idea of what is appropriate for a work environment is far different than here. Here, a grocery store clerk would not be allowed to wear a skirt that ‘pretends’ to show her panties to her customers and co-workers. That would be unacceptable and if someone came to work wearing that they would probably be fired! This  enlightened me to the fact that every culture is different – and in business it is especially important to understand this. Failure to regard differing cultures will potentially result in dissatisfied employees, because they recieve punishment for things that were acceptable in their culture as well as immense communication problems:

1. Words mean different things to different people (efficiency & free market have no direct translation in Russian)
2.  Barriers caused by word connotations (the Japanese word hai translates as “yes”, but its connotation may be “yes, I am listening,” rather than “yes, I agree.”
3. Barriers caused by tone difference
4. Barriers caused by differences in perception 

Bottom line is that our culture may not be as accepting to this fashion trend as the Japanese are and understanding cultural differences is important in a companies success.

I look forward to North Americans’ reaction when these hit home!

                       

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