Business Suitors Tell How They Courted Japan : Marketing: Executives say patience is needed when entering that country’s marketplace. There are surprises and pitfalls aplenty for the unprepared.

Companies thinking about entering the Japanese market should think of the process as a never-ending courtship, according to two Orange County executives whose companies entered the Japanese market in recent years.

“No matter how well I felt I knew the market, there were a lot of surprises in their business practices that delayed our business plans,” said Steven M. Kishi, a vice president for international operations at Anaheim-based Carl Karcher Enterprises Inc., owner of the Carl’s Jr. hamburger chain.

Carl’s Jr. opened its first outlet in Japan two years ago and now operates six restaurants there, five of them in Osaka, Kishi said.

Tom Yuen, co-chairman of personal computer maker AST Research Inc., said the hiring process often takes longer because Japanese do not frequently change jobs. More important, he found that Japanese executives are not easily enticed by promises of higher salaries and better positions. Instead, they take time studying the reputation of a prospective employer and prefer establishing a friendly relationship over time with the company before making a decision.

“They view hiring as a partnership,” said Yuen, whose company entered the Japanese market in 1988. “The longer they know a potential business employer, they believe they can have a stronger future relationship.”

Yuen and Kishi spoke Wednesday before more than 70 members of the Japan America Society of Southern California at the Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach.

Yuen said it took AST nine months to woo 45-year-old Harry Yonei to become general manager of AST’s Japan subsidiary earlier this year. Although it’s easier to hire younger Japanese executives, Yuen said they are generally less loyal to one employer than older Japanese executives. For example, Yonei’s predecessor, a 30-year-old executive, left the job less than three years after taking up the position, Yuen said.

Yuen and Kishi said interpreters can play a key role during business negotiations. But they cautioned that companies should make sure they hire skilled translators who will convey conversations accurately.

“I had to terminate the services of several interpreters because I found myself losing control of the negotiations,” said Kishi, who took nearly two years to negotiate a franchise deal with the Japanese. “They were becoming a liability rather than an asset to us,” he said.

For advertising purposes, Kishi advised companies to photograph their products in the United States rather than in Japan. Japanese photographers can charge almost twice as much as their American counterparts, he said, and the quality is generally weaker.

“Photography is viewed as an art in Japan,” Kishi said. “What makes it expensive is Japanese models command high fees and the photographers call in food stylists to arrange the presentation of products.”