Desiree --- True confession! I advised a U.S. company director, who was meeting with his Japanese superiors in Japan, on the vagaries of gift giving. We picked out the perfect gift, advised him to have it gift wrapped at his hotel as it would be opened going through Customs...no bows, no black and white colors etc. All was well until he came home and told me that, although I had advised that he refuse a gift (that he would inevitably receive) three or four times before accepting, that his Japanese counterpart exclaimed "I thought you Americans accepted gifts the first time!" Just goes to show that protocol goes both ways...they're studying your protcol too!!!

Source author: Marie Betts-Johnson mbj@ipicalifornia.com