By Tsuyoshi Taira.Mr. Taira spent 18 years as Chairman of Sanyo Semiconductor, USA (Mountain View, California). While at Sanyo, he invested in several Silicon Valley companies. After leaving Sanyo, he invests in and helps promising technology companies. His most recent investment, Junglee Corporation, was acquired in August 1998 by Amazon.com for about $200 million. Currently he serves on the board of directors of Silicon Storage Technology (SST), Tripath Technology, Armedia, Texpertise, Xpeed and several other companies.

Addressing Japanese Business People Appropriately

I was talking with my friend Fred McWilliams who worked at Western Design Center, about Wilfred Corrigan (or Will) who worked at Motorola and Fairchild Semiconductor and is now Chairman of LSI Logic.

Fred said that he was very impressed with Will Corrigan's ability to remember people's names. Fred worked with Will when Fred was a salesman at Motorola. Fred did not have much interaction with Will except at sales conferences. Several years after Fred left Motorola, he met Will and when they met the first thing Will said was, "Fred how are you. How's your family." And he continued "Fred I am sorry I forgot your last name". Fred was very impressed.

I had similar experience with Will Corrigan. I was an engineer working in the basement of 464 Ellis Street of the Fairchild Semiconductor Building and I met Will a few times during my 5 years of work at Fairchild Semiconductor. I left Fairchild and had a chance to see him several years later at the Sanyo Electric headquarters. When we met, the first thing he said to me was, "Tsuyoshi, how have you been? We haven't seen each other for a long time". He did not say he forget my last name.

I was very impressed with Will Corrigan's memory. I thought that it was a qualification of successful top executives. It is very nice when someone calls people with their name and when a guy like Will can remember a person who did not deal with him very often. When you do business with people, it is very important to remember their names.

I like the U.S. custom of calling people by their first name. We can even call the U.S. President Bill if he suggests that we do that. This is truly wonderful. I am very impressed with American people that they remember people's names even several years later.

When I first worked for a U.S. company in Tokyo, my American boss invited all the Japanese employees and their spouses to his home for a party. His wife Mrs. Evans greeted all the guests at the door. She asked each person's name, in some cases, confirming the pronunciation of the name.

I thought she would not remember all the employees' and their wives' names, all together 30 of them. During the party to my surprise she remembered everybody's name. She talked with every body using their first and last names. On the other hand, Mr. Evans did not remember people's names unless he was dealing with them every day. Some people have a special skill to remember names. But I have noticed that majority of American people remember people's names very well. It is really nice to be called with one's first name. Some top executives put special effort into remembering people's names.

I once heard that when Dr. Costelo, former Vice President of General Motors, hired a Japanese manager, Motohiko Hirayama, he repeated the name "Motohiko, Motohiko" every morning several times when he shaved. He practiced for several weeks until he could pronounce and remember the name. Wow! What a wonderful effort!

And later I heard that at my company's sales representative company Jack Harvey Associates, an employee was practicing my name Tsuyoshi every week. They even hired a Japanese Language teacher and practiced the pronunciation of my name with the teacher. I now realize why this company was doing so well and why they were able to generate a lot of sales. Even today when I call after several years of not being in contact with them, they still remember my name "Tsuyoshi".

I try to remember people's names but it is still difficult. Sometimes when I can't recall the names of my friends, I start thinking of all the first names I know of: Bill, Jack, Steve, Jim, and so on, until I get the right one.

Unfortunately in Japan people normally use last names attaching the word "san" at the end, for example, "Taira-san". They do not use first names especially in the business world, in stead, using Taira-san , Kimura-san or Hirayama-san and so on. 'San' means Mr. or Mrs. In other words, they always call people Mr. or Mrs. so and so.

In the ancient time, people even did not even have family names. Only noble people had family names. Family name was first allowed after the Meiji-era. It used to be that in Japanese offices, people did not use the superior's name, but call them with their title like, Kachou, or Buchou (meaning Supervisor or Manager).

These days in Japanese companies, people have started calling their managers with their name instead of calling them by their title. But still junior employees feel it is impolite to use the names of people in high positions.

Even at home, only parents or older relative call us with our first name. In Japanese schools, only students in the same or more senior class call "Taira" without attaching "san". In the school if Junior students call their senior person without attaching "san" they can be beaten even to this day.

When I have visitors from Japan, some of them still call me Chairman because my business card says I am Chairman of a company. I feel it is impersonal so I always tell them to call me Taira-san. Japanese culture and society are changing to become more individual-oriented rather than organization-oriented.

Foreigners visiting Japan or doing business with Japanese people often know that in Japan people use their family names. But after a period of time, they start calling Japanese people with their family name only, using "Taira" instead of "Taira-san".

As I mentioned, it is unpolite to call a person with their family name if you do not attach "san" at the end. But foreigners in Japan do this very often. I have seen many American and Chinese business people make this mistake.

It is a nice part of the U.S. culture to call a person by their first name. But when you want to address a Japanese person by their first name, it's best to make sure you ask them if they are comfortable with that.

I still recommend calling senior business people using their family name with "san" attached. As for me, I am very comfortable to be called Tsuyoshi.