India Action Plan's CEO Vipul Kant Upadhyay (third from left) and his 100 employees have learned the basics of the Japanese way

It's difficult to say you were late for work because you didn't know how to sort the garbage. But it did happen to Piyush Sinha. He was just out the front door of his hired Tokyo apartment when he saw the garbage bags at his front door.

Sinha, 25, a dapper database consultant from Delhi, was taken aback. If garbage bags (gomi in Japanese) were sent back to your door from the kerbside in a city that worked with clockwork precision, something was amiss. Sinha called in his interpreter. After a discussion with the landlord it transpired that since Sinha had not sorted out his garbage in five bags-to be put out on five different days-as required, the piqued landlord had dumped them back.

Everything about Japan-from garbage habits to business meetings-is hugely different from the US, the one foreign country that Indians in infotech use as a benchmark. But as growth rates fall, the call of high-tech Japan is strong. With names like Mitsubishi, Sony, and Toyota among the giants with it needs, the estimated it spend in Japan is projected to reach $54 billion (Rs 2,63,520 crore) within the next two years. Japan's spend on it services is today about 15 per cent of the world market. "The combination of Japanese hardware skills and Indian software skills can do wonders," says Vipul Kant Upadhyay, 27, CEO of India Action Plan (IAP), a Delhi software start-up that Sinha, who was flustered by Tokyo garbage, works for.

While Japan is the third largest export destination for Indian software, it accounts for a piffling Rs 1,000 crore of the total exports of Rs 63,000 crore. "Indian exports to Japan can definitely grow, especially in areas like telecom-related software, embedded software, chip design, and enterprise application integration," notes Sunil Mehta, VP (Research) at the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM).

To Indians raised on chaos and imprecision, though, the nuanced, ritualistic Japanese way of life and doing business is a shock-and a fear factor. Add on high costs from real-estate, living and the need to hire consultants and interpreters; rigid, hierarchical companies; and testing decision-making processes. Japan scares Indian it.

But IAP is showing how the Japanese market can be cracked. In the 18 months of its existence, the start-up has registered revenues of $3 million (Rs 14.4 crore) and is one of India's top performers in the land of the rising sun. With its formidable Japanese expertise, IAP is now the lead adviser to a consortium of 37 Indian software companies that have just ventured into Japan.

First lesson: there are no shortcuts. The language and the culture must be mastered before doing business.

Body Language: Employees learn business rituals, like exchanging cards. Hint: you must take it with both hands.

Table Manners: Learning to eat with chop-sticks and drinking sake right is a must. Deals are often closed after-hours.

Mastering Japanese: Refresher courses tech the kanji script, one of three varieties used in writing and software development

The U.S. Of A This Ain't
"Ohayou gozaimasu!"
"Hazime mashite!"

The otherwise dour Haryanvi guards at the door of IAP's office now greet visitors with a cheery, if guttural "good morning" and "how are you" in Japanese. Inside, the immersion in Japanese culture continues. The entire office is carpeted and the staff wear surippa (slippers) to get a feel of Japanese office environments. When employees talk to one another, you will hear many a Vinod san or Ashok san. Rewards include lunches-in Japanese restaurants. Fluency with chopsticks is a must too, and employees use coffee beans for chopsticks practice in office, then go to a restaurant to polish those skills.

The effort goes beyond the superficial. It starts with the recruitment process. IAP hires only one in 200 applicants, focusing on those who are, or might be, comfortable in Japanese, or a Japanese environment at least. With the management's unrelenting efforts, almost all of the 110 employees can exchange at least basic civilities in Japanese. More importantly, a fourth of the total workforce is now fluent in Japanese, including top management.

Still, there is always much to learn.

Staffers are made aware of the nuances of what might seem a simple introduction.

For instance, it's customary to bow when formally introduced, but the depth and length of the bow indicates respect. That's a far cry from an enthusiastic handshake. The US this ain't.

Similarly, exchanging cards is a ritual (present it with both hands, take a moment to study it before shaking hands, then place it in front of you for reference and an additional sign of respect). "It's a unique working culture and cannot be learned through books," says Ashok Kumar Gupta, 28, a team coordinator. So video sessions on social interaction are routine.

Then come the nitty-gritties of software work. It's vital to know Japanese, a complicated language for Indian programmers with its three scripts, all often appearing in the same sentence. Software project specifications are entirely in Japanese. Interpreters don't always work. "Using an interpreter to translate sometimes leads to a situation where 'disconnect from database' gets translated as 'amputate from database','' says Ashish Dange, 28, a business manager.

Most Indian companies looking for short-term gains simply don't have the patience and long-term planning required to make the grade in the Japanese market. Picking up people, giving them some language training and packing them off for a few months to Japan achieves nothing-except maybe a polite sayonara.