Gert Jan Hofstede spoke at a cross-cultural management conference ‘the culture factor‘ in Japan. It was organised by itim Japan in collaboration with CicomBrains. Gert Jan delivered a keynote on the them ‘Culture, a wall or a curtain?’ (pdf). It played on the symbolic difference between these two words. Japanese are known to have used the word ‘wall’ to describe cross-cultural situations, but they are also familiar with the subtler separation created by a curtain. A curtain can be pulled aside…
At the occasion, Gert Jan was also interviewed for Asahi Shimbun GLOBE, 6 November (article in Japanese).