(FORTUNE Magazine) – Is there anything Americans can teach the Japanese? Yes. How to deal with the probing, irreverent U.S. media. Japanese companies like Nissan Motor, Mitsubishi, and Suzuki are spending between $3,000 and $10,000 per person to prepare senior executives to meet the press. ''It has taken a while to convince them,'' says Wally Pfister, president of New York media trainer Executive Television Workshops. ''But the Japanese now understand the importance of communicating with the press.'' In the last six months Pfister has made two teaching trips to Tokyo. Ann Ready, president of Ready for Media, says the Japanese want skills to ''show they are in charge.'' What are the tricks the media gurus teach? One imperative: making direct eye contact with the interviewer, not an easy lesson for the deferential Japanese. Also, they need to learn to move their hands while speaking, instead of leaving them folded in their laps. While many Japanese executives understand English, they are taught how to gain an extra minute for particularly difficult questions by having an interpreter translate them. Meanwhile, what are American businessmen doing for self-improvement? Learning etiquette. According to Judi Kaufman, president of Etiquette International in Beverly Hills, executives from companies such as American Cyanamid, First Interstate Bank, and Southern California Gas have been brushing up on which fork to use and how to propose a toast in her $1,500, 12- hour courses.