There is a good deal of misunderstanding about how qualitative researchers work with participants and how participants react in qualitative studies in Asian countries and especially in Japan. In fact, when we do cross-cultural qualitative research in Japan, there are always some issues regarding Japanese culture/society that do not fit into the Western way of thinking. This paper discusses how and why such issues occur in data collection, analysis/interpretation, and recruitment - from the perspective of Japanese social and cultural characteristics and that of Japanese people. Finally, to meet those issues, the author proposes possible approaches for qualitative researchers in Japan to deliver results in a global context, while satisfying the demands of two major conditions: standardisation and cross-comparability.
This paper attempts to illustrate, through example, the qualitative market research experience in Japan within the context of international research coordination/management. There are typically three frameworks for organizing international qualitative research: ⢠Centralized coordination by a research agency with local agencies responsible for fieldwork and analysis of findings. ⢠Centralized coordination by a research agency with local agencies responsible only for fieldwork (central coordinating researcher observes all groups and carries out analysis and reporting). ⢠No coordinating agency. The client commissions the local research agencies directly. Local researcher is responsible for fieldwork and analysis of findings. Within each basic framework there are a number of possible players, for example, foreign clients, local clients, foreign creative people, local creative people, the moderator, a local research coordinator, etc.