This article misses some significant cultural differences.

I worked with a talented older group in Japan for a while.

If on a call they said something would be “difficult”, that was their understated way of saying “never in a million years would we do that”.

They were also strongly hierarchical and would often defer to their leader to avoid any disagreement.

They could teach the British a lesson in understatement…

Even though we had a close working relationship they were very much trying to “save face” when issues came up and didn’t directly admit shortcomings.

Also, never address them by their first names !!