Intercultural encounters are becoming everyday. From childhood, meeting with peers from other cultures, during education and more through various student and student exchange projects, international competitions, and today business is unthinkable without intercultural encounters. The changes and challenges of globalization include new migration, greater mobility, increased interaction in the field of business. In order for international business to thrive, every businessman is obliged to educate themselves about cultural differences and prepare for business communication. This expresses respect for the business partner and his culture and avoids the possibility of offending someone unknowingly. The role that non-verbal communication plays in the business world is shown by the fact that many international businesses fail because of a failure to communicate or due to misunderstandings of non-verbal messages by foreign associates. In order to understand the importance of intercultural communication as clearly as possible, the paper is structured in two parts. The first part deals with the theoretical elaboration of the topic through definitions, divisions, examples and schematics, while the second part deals with the comparative method of comparison. The research is conducted with the aim of presenting as much as possible the cultural characteristics and emphasizing the importance of using the correct intercultural communication in business. For the best result, ie the more noticeable differences, the specificities of Japan and the Republic of Croatia were compared.