By Mike Kim / Special to The Japan News

16:54 JST, December 1, 2025

When I first started doing business in Japan in 2016, the initial cultural lesson was the meishi kokan — the business card exchange. It’s a ritual that’s generally easy to pick up. But what took years to truly understand was something less obvious and far more powerful: the art of the Japanese business dinner. I came to see the dinner as central to how trust and collaboration actually happen in Japan.

Before the pandemic, I probably averaged three or four dinners a week. What started as a work obligation quickly became something to genuinely enjoy.

Looking back, I can’t imagine where my relationships with Japanese customers, partners and investors would be without those dinners. When I think about my strongest corporate relationships over the past decade, they all seem to trace back to memorable evenings at the table, not meetings in conference rooms. It’s over dinner that relationships are deepened, friendships are forged, honest conversations take place (sometimes difficult ones), apologies are made, alignment happens, and celebrations unfold.

As an American corporate consultant who learned through trial and error without anyone to show me the ropes, I hereby would like to note five mistakes that can slow your progress in business with Japanese counterparts.

The first mistake is to forgo doing business dinners at all. If you skip these opportunities with your customers or potential customers, you are missing out on the chance to build essential relationships and trust with your counterparts. I........

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