Presentations in Japan

So you think typical "PowerPoint presentations" are bad in your country? Things are no better in Japan, in fact things may be worse.

I recently heard from a Japanese national living in Silicon Valley concerning the "typical" presentation in Japan. Allow me to paraphrase his comments because I think they are spot on:

• The Japanese presenter is often a "sensei" figure. And a teacher's style in Japan is didactic. The audience is there to absorb information not to participate.

• Japanese are not accustom to "presentation-as-discussion" style. The presenter, then, assumes a position of someone who distributes knowledge, not someone who provokes discussion or engages an audience.

• There is little audience input. But worse than no input at all from the audience is the "commentary for sake of commentary" input we do see from some Japanese audience members (usually more senior). This is rarely constructive input and serves only to drag an uninspiring presentation on even longer.

Audiences in Japan, it is true, often seem bored. Often they are bored. But their expectation going in was that the presentation will not be exciting or engaging. But here's the rub: When Japanese audiences do witness an engaging, provocative, energetic presentation, their response is extremely positive. They love it. Many Japanese may not know how to make such an engaging, audience-centric presentation themselves, since they have almost no experience or training of this type, but they do indeed favor such presentations.

Comments

[Naotake Murayama]

Nicely paraphrased, Garr! The comment about the audience being/appearing bored (which you added) is often times a manifestation of the passiveness that's expected of the "pupils" - especially in the corporate environment.

But as you say, if the setting is appropriate and the speaker is willing to break out of the traditional "teacher" mode - you get great responses.

Thanks,
Naotake

[European Vacation]

Very good article.