Ditch the Poetry

I live in Brazil. I am Japanese.

I am regularly treated as an exotic curiosity — the unexpected presence in the room.

I find it exhausting.

So when I see consultants selling "mysterious Japan" to Western companies — the Nemawashi, the deep listening, the cultural harmony — I recognize the move immediately.

It is the same move.

I grew up reading German and British children's literature. I listened to French pop and Britpop. I studied classical piano, cello, and flamenco guitar. I danced salsa.

None of that is exotic. It is just a life.

The person they read as exotic is not thinking exotic thoughts.

Japanese users are the same. They are not a cultural archetype waiting to be decoded. They are users making practical trust decisions inside a product experience.

Yes, Japanese organizations tend to be careful. Decision-making often involves multiple layers of approval. Trust is built slowly and lost quickly.

But none of that is mythology. It is just how high-trust markets work. And high-trust markets reward one thing above all: a product experience that does not make users doubt themselves.

Risky onboarding leads to instant drop-off. Vague help content makes users leave instead of ask. Off-tone messaging makes trust evaporate before the product has a chance to prove itself.

This isn't Japan being mysterious. This is users hitting friction and leaving.

What actually needs fixing

The teams struggling in Japan are often not failing because they misunderstood Japanese culture. They are failing because the product experience gives users the wrong cues.

Mythology doesn't predict user behavior. It just fills slides.

Japan does not need to be decoded. The product experience needs to be made clear, usable, and trustworthy in Japanese.

Fix the UX. Ditch the poetry.