How to Exchange Business Cards in Japan

The practice of exchanging business cards in Japan is incredibly important. In Japan, business actually cannot take place until these cards have been exchanged with the utmost respect. A business card establishes a person's station and status in Japan's intensely hierarchal culture. Not having a business card means, in a very fundamental way, that you simply do not exist.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Use both hands when presenting your business card. Your card should be printed on both sides - Japanese on one, English on the other. When presenting your card, the Japanese side should be facing up.
2. Bow as long and as low as befits your station - being foreign, young, female, and/or unaffiliated with a corporation means you must bow very, very low.
3. You receive a business card in the same way, but you should bow even longer and lower than you did before. Say thank you, or 'Hajimemashite,' as you accept it with both hands.
4. Study the business card intently, even if you can't read a single line. At the very least, remember the giver's name. They will remember yours.
5. If you are receiving multiple cards at once, you may leave them in a neat stack in front of you until the end of your meeting. If not, retrieve your custom-made business card holder, and slide your new aquisition inside - carefully, like it were a piece of art.

Tips & Warnings

• The lower-ranking individual must offer their card first.
• Do not write on or otherwise deface a business card. Ever. A top prefectural official was once caught on camera folding a business card into his pocket, and it caused a national scandal.