Mexico, Japan Business Styles Called Similar

SAN DIEGO — The comparison might not be self-evident, but Jose R. de la Garza, an assistant vice president at Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank of California, says the Japanese business style is oddly like that of his native Mexico.

In both societies, the loan officer said, deals are built on a foundation of laboriously cultivated personal relationships. The stranger in each nation is greeted by an impregnable wall of cordiality; trust is doled out in stages.

Like Mexicans, said de la Garza, 38, “the Japanese will even go to the extent of telling you what you want to hear, but that’s not really what they intend to say.”

Over time, however, and by performing at a level that merits regard, “you can reach a level of mutual respect where they will tell you what they feel,” he said.

The everyday battle with Mexican bureaucracy, de la Garza said, is good preparation for waiting out the Japanese company’s circuitous decision-making process. “Decision-making in Mexico really is not much different than it is in Japan,” he said.

Although Japanese employers are criticized for failing to understand--and, as a result, discriminating against--ethnic minority groups in America, de la Garza said his ethnicity has been a plus in his years as a banker for the Japanese.

As a Mexican, he said, “I have been able to fit (in) and assimilate much easier than some of my Anglo or other non-Asian colleagues.”