01The behaviour and its intended meaning
In most professional settings in East Asia, one does not address someone by their first name: the standard form of address combines the surname with a suffix or a title. In Japan: surname + san (Suzuki-san), or surname + title to mark the function (Suzuki-buchō, "director Suzuki") - calling someone by their bare first name (yobisute, 呼び捨て, literally "calling while throwing away" the suffix) is reserved for family and very close friends. In Korea: surname + title + the honorific nim (Kim bujang-nim, "director Kim"), or full name + nim; the first name alone belongs to intimacy. In China: surname + title (Wáng jīnglǐ 王经理, "manager Wang"; Lǐ zǒng 李总, "CEO Li"). Erin Meyer (The Culture Map, 2014, chap. 4 "How Much Respect Do You Want? Leadership, Hierarchy, and Power") places Japan, Korea and China on the hierarchical side of her Leading scale: there, linguistic distance expresses respect, not coldness. Conversely, in the Anglo-American and Scandinavian world, moving immediately to first names signals equality and openness - it is the local form of politeness, not misplaced familiarity.
02Where it goes wrong: geography of the misunderstanding
The clash is symmetrical. The American executive who says "Call me John" from the first meeting believes he is offering closeness; his Japanese or Korean counterparts hear an embarrassing invitation to violate their own social grammar - many will get out of it with a "John-san", a common and perfectly honourable compromise. Conversely, the Westerner reads the persistence of surname + title after years of collaboration as distance, even rejection, whereas it indicates nothing other than the normal register of work.
Three nuances against the caricature. The norm is changing fast in Korea: CJ Group replaced titles with the suffix nim as early as 2000, Samsung Electronics flattened its grades in 2016-2017, and Kakao has had people use English first names without titles since its beginnings. In Japan, globalised groups such as Rakuten have shifted towards English-language usage. Finally, in the subsidiaries of Western multinationals and in startups, the first name - often a chosen English first name - is frequent: observe local usage before generalising.
03Historical origins
Address by title is rooted in the Confucian order: the doctrine of the "rectification of names" (zhengming 正名, Analects XIII.3) makes the correspondence between names, roles and conduct the condition of social order - "let the ruler be ruler, the minister minister, the father father, the son son" (Analects XII.11). Japanese encodes these relationships in keigo (敬語), honorific language, and Korean in its speech levels (see the linked entry on the question of age in Korea). The modern academic anchoring of address as a marker of power and solidarity is the classic study by Brown and Gilman ("The Pronouns of Power and Solidarity", in Sebeok (ed.), Style in Language, MIT Press, 1960).
Against a widespread shortcut: Hofstede's "power distance" scores do not explain this norm. Japan (54) and South Korea (60) are mid-range on that index - below France (68), where people nonetheless move to first names far more quickly; only China (80) is high, and the United States (40) is not among the lowest. The norm of address belongs to the sociolinguistic conventions specific to each language, not to any unambiguous "hierarchy score".
04Documented incidents
Rakuten, "Englishnization" (1 March 2010). Hiroshi Mikitani announced to some 7,000 Japanese employees that the group's working language would become English, with two years to reach the required level. The longitudinal study by Tsedal Neeley (Harvard Business School; The Language of Global Success, Princeton University Press, 2017) documents the cultural shock of that shift - including its effect on registers of address, which English mechanically flattens.
Japan restores the surname-first order (1 January 2020). On the initiative of Foreign Minister Tarō Kōno (May 2019), Japanese official documents in the Latin alphabet now write the family name first - "ABE Shinzo" and no longer "Shinzo Abe". The order of the name is itself a cultural claim.
Samsung Electronics flattens its titles (announced 27 June 2016, applied 1 March 2017). The group simplified seven grades into four career levels and generalised address by name + nim or "pro" in place of hierarchical titles - proof that the norm is being renegotiated from within, sixteen years after the pioneer CJ Group.
05Practical recommendations
Do: use surname + title or honorific suffix until explicitly invited otherwise; observe how local colleagues address one another and follow their usage; if you wish to offer your first name, offer it without imposing it ("you can call me Marc, if you prefer"); accept hybrid forms ("John-san") as a respectful compromise.
Do not: do not force the use of first names or an atmosphere of informality; do not interpret the persistence of the title after years as coldness; do not drop the honorific suffix when speaking about a third party in front of their colleagues; do not correct someone who gives you your title - it is a mark of respect.
Geography of misunderstanding
Offensive
- japan
- south-korea
- china-continental
- taiwan
Neutral
- usa
- canada
Historical origins
Adresse par nom + titre/suffixe enracinée dans l'ordre confucéen (zhengming, Analectes XIII.3) et grammaticalisée par les honorifiques (keigo japonais, niveaux de langue coréens). Ancrage académique : Brown et Gilman 1960 (pouvoir et solidarité dans l'adresse). Correction P6 : PDI Hofstede Japon 54 et Corée 60 (moyens, sous la France 68) — la norme est sociolinguistique, pas un simple score de hiérarchie. Évolutions internes documentées : CJ 2000, Rakuten 2010, Samsung 2016-2017, Kakao.
Documented incidents
- 2010 — Le 1er mars 2010, Hiroshi Mikitani annonce l'« Englishnization » de Rakuten : l'anglais devient la langue de travail, deux ans pour atteindre le niveau requis. L'étude longitudinale de Tsedal Neeley (Harvard Business School) documente le choc culturel, y compris sur les registres d'adresse que l'anglais aplatit. (Neeley, T. (2017), The Language of Global Success, Princeton University Press ; HBS case « Language and Globalization: 'Englishnization' at Rakuten (A) »)
- 2020 — Depuis le 1er janvier 2020, les documents officiels japonais en alphabet latin écrivent le nom de famille d'abord (« ABE Shinzo »), à l'initiative du ministre des Affaires étrangères Tarō Kōno (mai 2019). L'ordre du nom est lui-même un enjeu culturel. (Japan Today (2019), « Gov't to start using 'family name first' order from Jan 1 » ; The Diplomat (septembre 2020), « Abe Shinzo or Shinzo Abe: What's in a Name? »)
- 2017 — Annoncée le 27 juin 2016 et appliquée le 1er mars 2017, la réforme des titres de Samsung Electronics simplifie sept grades en quatre niveaux et généralise l'adresse par nom + nim ou « pro » — seize ans après le pionnier CJ Group (2000). (The Korea Herald, « Samsung Electronics to simplify job titles » (27 juin 2016) et « Samsung Electronics to streamline job titles » (10 février 2017))
Practical recommendations
To do
- Utilisez nom de famille + titre ou suffixe honorifique (san, nim) jusqu'à invitation explicite.
- Observez comment les collègues locaux s'adressent entre eux et suivez leur usage.
- Si vous offrez votre prénom, offrez-le sans l'imposer — et acceptez les formes hybrides (« John-san »).
- En Corée, notez le titre exact de chacun (bujang, isa...) : il fait partie du nom d'usage.
Avoid
- Ne forcez pas l'usage du prénom : l'invitation ne se décrète pas pour autrui.
- N'interprétez pas le maintien du titre après des années comme de la froideur ou du rejet.
- Ne retirez pas le suffixe honorifique en parlant d'un tiers devant ses collègues.
- Ne corrigez pas un interlocuteur qui vous donne du titre — c'est une marque de respect.
Neutral alternatives
- Se présenter soi-même sous la forme que l'on souhaite voir utilisée (« Dupont, ou Marc si vous préférez »).
- En équipe mixte, expliciter la convention d'adresse en début de projet (titres, prénoms, prénoms anglais).
- Par écrit, suivre la signature de l'interlocuteur : elle indique la forme qu'il attend.