japanese way of networking

i attended a startup event night which has networking part after. since i have to look for a job, i gave away my business card. then one japanese company owner emailed me saying he is impressed with my linkedin profile and invited me for a lunch.

is lunch invitation normal here in japan for business purposes? i am afraid that it could be something else since japanese men have bad reputation like molestation and groping. on another part, i dont want to be too judgemental and i need a job.

There are some people who say best approach to know somebody's true personality or opinion is to have meal or drink together. A discreet employer would take steps of screening by CV, interview at his/her office and 2nd round interview over meal/drink. If he is an employer of relatively small company, he may control personnel affairs and go directly to the third step. If it is a big company, it is impossible. Maybe he is just friendly/outgoing, or maybe he has some other thought.
In my opinion as far as it is going to be a lunch it should be okay. If it is a dinner/drink, be careful.

Thanks for your response. actually he invited me without knowing that i am looking for a job and also during the event i also notice that he giveaway his business card so i think he really needs connections. so maybe there is no bad motive and i should go. anyway, i still want to know if that is a common way of networking in japan (inviting people to lunch and chat)

I figure you're a relatively young female. I am a Japanese female who used to be young.

It may depend on the industry and status, but all the first meetings I've attended have been at an office. It would usually be pretty casual, but still inside an office meeting booth over simple coffee or tea from their machine. I have never been invited to meals by my clients before being hired.

Perhaps since you two had already met and chatted in person, he thought it would be okay to move on to meals to get to know you better as a person in a relaxed atmosphere. But in my experience, even if the client has no office (ie. freelancer) we would go to a Starbucks type place for a very short time, especially if the client is a male. There is awareness of "sexual harassment" in Japan, and I find that clients do their best to make me feel less intimidated as possible (even though I'm not young).

Since your title is "japanese way of networking", I am answering according to my experience as a Japanese with the Japanese. And so far, ever since I became professional I haven't experienced any sort of "molestation and groping" by Japanese men related to business scenes.

But when I was a college girl (which was decades ago), I applied for a part-time job. The employer suggested we meet inside a building outside his office, and he took me to a cafe. I was then hired, but after a few days of being ordered to skip work and have dinner with him, I learned that he wasn't really looking for an employee. So I declined and quit. It took me the few days since I was young and the phrase "sexual harassment" was yet to be known, but I do suggest you be straightforward to him if you feel that anything is going wrong.

Hope you have a pleasant lunch.

it is not a typical Japanese way of networking for business, but useful for private relationship.

thank you very much for sharing your experiences and advice uco!