Densho Digital Archive - George Nakata Interview (denshovh-ngeorge

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MH: You know you mentioned you kind of assimilated the Japanese business culture because it's so much different than what we have here, and you have, I don't know whether you took it upon yourself but at least help teach the people here what to expect when they go to Japan or when a Japanese person came here. How did that come about?

GN: Well, being lucky with broad exposure to Far East cultures and having the opportunity on this side to work with Japanese nationals that are stationed here or with Americans that want to do business in the Far East, through the several decades of being in this business, as dumb as I am, I'm able to pick up a few things, so you learn the do's and don'ts. In fact, I ended up teaching a class at Portland State University night school on international business and export marketing for several terms and several years down there and also was a guest instructor at Linnfield at their Portland campus if you will on that subject. And perhaps, part of it is where an American company really wants to know how to deal with Asians or Japanese specifically. They're hungry for information, but they really don't know how. And so since 1995 when I started my own company, I've gone into companies to try to give them a briefing starting with the very beginning. How do you accept the business card? What do you do with the business card? You stick it in your pocket? You don't write on it. There's a lot of things, and so not to get into every detail in particular, but the way you address people, the way you sit. In the Japanese formal business meetings, they sit by rank. In China, you sit by rank. And so there are certain physical positions that are correct in a conference room or in a smaller business meeting room. And so things of that nature, there are some things in Japan that after quite a time, you'll begin to know. You'll know that the Mitsubishi man does not drink Asahi or Sapporo beer. They don't support that company. You'll find that Mitsui don't drink Kirin beer. That's how competitive it is. There are cadence of groups, groups of companies that work with each other, groups of companies that have nothing to do with each other. When I dealt with Nishin Flour Mills, I had to know that Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Marubeni worked with that company. But when I went to Nippon Flour Mill, it was Mitsui and it was Itochu and it was Nisho Iwai that worked with that company, so you have these different cadence of groups. Japan is a country of tradition of long rich history, decision by consensus. So in the United States, you might want to meet the president and the chairman of the board, CEO, great. But in Japan, why don't you try meeting with the manager and the general manager and maybe the assistant managing director first and build up the groundswell of support so that they can put their hanko or they can put their approval on coming to your port or doing business with you. You're going to the very top will get you nice conversation. Well, have you been Japan, first time to Mount Fuji, how do you like Ginza and a few other, you know, did you try sashimi yet, nothing of real value. So you learn a lot of these things through years of experience that in cases where I'm doing advisory work for a U.S. company, there's how to pronounce Japanese names, a little bit about Japanese history, a little bit about contrast between Japan and here, the density of people, their expression, their language. The American language does not have too many words of feeling, deep, dedicated words of feeling. The Japanese language is full of them, not translatable and how to address people, how to follow up, how not to offend, how about dinnertime conversation. You make sure that you pour that beer and fill up that person's glass when you're at dinner. Well, most people don't think about that because you don't do that here in generally. You always do that in Japan. So there's a lot of nuances. There's a lot of ways of doing business. And even if you're not fluent in Japanese, learn a few words. Learn at least how to say, "Pleasure to meet you," learn at least to say, "Thank you." And sometimes the aggressive Yankee hard sell is not the way to go. You don't whip out your order pad. I remember in Beijing, a gentleman was telling me that he made seven trips to the Great Wall with an executive from Boeing, went up, sipped tea, looked at the Great Wall, talked about things, came back down, nothing happened. But on the drive back on the seventh trip, "By the way, we're buying twenty airplanes from you," and that's how things go. If this man was pushy, it wouldn't have been. But he went to the Temple of Heaven and he went to the Ming's Tomb and he enjoyed their culture. He knew when to give a toast, he knew when not to drink too much, he knew he wasn't supposed to talk too much about Taiwan, he knew all the nuances because as the Chinese gentleman told me, "You're with the Port of Portland. Nakata-san, let's first become friends, then let's later talk about business." That phrase stuck with me to this day. You don't push; you bide your time. Business will come if it's worth it.

So Taiwan is different, Hong Kong is different, each country different, and don't want to dwell on each, but in its own way, so many positive things about each country over there, Singapore so clean, very humid, Bangkok so different, Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia. Oh gosh, tapping a rubber tree, I've never done that in my life until I went to Malaysia. Singapore, eating adobo and shipping Pacific Northwest beans down there, and again a different way of doing business. The Far East, it's a big area. I'm still learning, by no means have mastered anything. But through the years, I've enjoyed trying to pick up a little bit of knowledge of Korea and Japan and China and Taiwan and the Far East, so professional career has been quite interesting. Days with Pacific Supply and the time with the Port of Portland, going over, sometimes with coworkers, sometimes, most times by myself, sometimes by necessity with a politician. There was a Punchgreen, Ellen Punchgreen that headed up the Benson Glass Company here that became head of the Federal Maritime Commission that we went to Beijing with, treated like royalty and stayed in the very hotel room that Henry Kissinger stayed in in Shanghai and went to the little place that the gang of four were held at. So you learn things of history. You learn about China. I got to know China so well that this one fellow said, told me all about the rice ration, and he had a second child, broke the rule. He didn't get rations for a second child because he wasn't supposed to have it because of population control. He says, "I hate the Communists. Yes, we are communistic. We're socialistic. But did you know only nine percent of us belong to the party?" He said, "Did you notice that man that was sitting in the side of our room in the meeting that never said anything? He's the political commissar. He was just listening to what you were saying. You didn't say anything wrong, but he's with the party. All the rest of us talking business, we're not part of the party." Well, you learn these little insights as you travel and some of it perhaps don't have a part in going through an oral history, but at the same time, they are interesting to me that you learn and live and intermingle with the politics and people. And my good friend that couldn't have the second child changed his name, is now an executive with the high steamship, Good Steamship Company in Hong Kong and has a completely different name now. And so met him there, and he says, "Gosh, it's a different life. It's just a different life than China."

Things are changing. Capitalism is moving in, went to the Nike Factory in China and saw all the air gel shoes and some of the, well, actually some of the lower end shoes were the ones that being made in this particular factory. But Nike's big over there having also in Korea. Nike is very big in Korea. It's interesting living here in Portland, Oregon, the world headquarters for Nike, and sometimes going overseas and talking with local people and seeing the happy people that worked in the Nike shops in China. They were so happy because they were making more than their neighbor. They were making more than other people. And here in America, it sounds like they're suffering in sweat shops. But when you talk to them directly, they are so happy. But Nike is quite a name over there, and they're sold over there. Sometimes I would get acquainted with a person enough to tell them I can practically walk to the Nike campus from my house, the world headquarters. They go, "What?" And yes, it's on Jenkins Street right down the street from Cedar Hills Boulevard and have a good friend there, and once in a while, he'll give me a pass to the employees' store, and that's just great. We talk about Nike, and it's really comforting to know that the hometown grown company can get that big and that global and be so visible in the Olympics for example. It's really great to see that when you're way over there in Pusan, Korea, you're there in Shanghai, China, or you're in Hong Kong. Again I'm thankful that it was international trade, Port of Portland, and my business that I'm in now that has taken me to have these kind of doors open and chances to meet some of these people and to learn a little bit about international trade.