Cultural Codes

In the '80s, when Japan's powerful economy made it a lucrative place to do business, stories of deals falling through due to some inadvertent cultural faux-pas - disrespectfully slipping a newly received business card into one's back pocket, for example - led to the proliferation of Japanese-style management seminars and courses. Hollywood even addressed the issue in the 1986 film Gung Ho, starring Michael Keaton as the harried go-between for his American co-workers and the Japanese managers who had taken over a U.S.-based car manufacturing plant.