When Mr. Hyashida, the Japanese president of the joint venture died, Mr. Carter was waiting to discuss who would be going to be the next president of the joint venture. However, then suddenly he received the news that the next president of the joint venture had been nominated. He was very upset because in American culture, everyone is equal in the Joint venture where 50% authorities have power to run the company at American side and the other 50% is at Japanese side. So they think they have authorities to vote the successors with Toka Foods. And Mr. Carter even thinks Mr. Ota is not appropriate in that position. So Mr. Carter wanted to nominate the other successor in that position. .
Mr. Ota had worked in Toka Foods for more than 35 years. He had spent half of his life in Toka Foods. So the president of the joint venture is the reward for his loyalty. But in American culture which is performance oriented, he is just a manager who lacks line manufacturing experience. So Mr. Carter wanted Mr. Katsuki who had really good performance in the past and speaks fluent English to be the president. However in the Japanese point of view, it can ruin the harmony in the company and is considered to lose face; Mr. Sony and Mr. Ota. So this is totally unacceptable in Japanese culture. .
The second issue in this case is the private concept in American and Japanese culture. Mr. Sony thinks the problems in joint venture derived from Mr. Carter and Mr. Russell. He thinks Mr. Carter is not professional. He has no knowledge of Japanese business practices. He also thinks Mr. Russell did not do his job well, because Mr. Russell did not speak well Japanese and he is considered not to be interested in the joint venture family. Mr. Russell did not attend many social functions and had rarely participated in weekend outings and golf games. So Mr. Sony thought joint venture had not been such a good idea after all, but Mr. Russell's performance is understandable in American culture.
