tep outside of their cultural confinement and finally relate, in some way, to other people and other countries" (DeMente, 1993, p. 1). Boye Lafayette DeMente (1993) notes, "During the 1980s, almost half of the entire population of Japan traveled abroad" (p. 1). One of the results of this extensive national exposure to other cultures has been a new Japanese willingness to accept Western approaches to doing business and a new Japanese hunger for American products.
However, the Japanese market remains a separate case for American marketers. Christalynn Brannen and Tracey Wilen (1993), in their handbook showing American businesswomen some of the pitfalls of working in a male-dominated society, caution, "Extrapolating from one's own culture to another is a big mistake" (p. 12). The overwhelmingly male bureaucracy within Japanese business is one important facet important to any understanding of the culture. A 1992 study by Business Week magazine noted that only 3 percent of all professional positions in blue-chip companies in Japan were open to women (Brannen, 1993, p. 118). This imbalance reflects the traditional Japan
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