Takeshi Niinami, CEO of Suntory Holdings, gestures as he answers questions during a press conference in Tokyo on July 1, 2014.
That caused a clash early on, when Beam's CEO believed he had received approval for his budget while Suntory insisted he had not, said Niinami. Those contrasting approaches are typical of the differing cultures in Japan and the West. A nod of the head in the U.S., for example, signals agreement, while it can be less straightforward in Japan.