ITT: How do Japanese Multiply (NOT A REPRODUCTION TOPIC)

those dang japanese.....

That's just a standard retail fold

Anyone mind explaining to me how this works pelase?

And as a commenter already explained:

It's the distributive property:

123 * 321

= (100 + 20 + 3) * (300 + 20 + 1)

= 100 * 300 + 100 * 20 + 100 * 1 + 20 * 300 + 20 * 20 + 20 * 1 + 3 * 300 + 3 * 20 + 3 * 1

The lines just help you do the FOIL (rather slowly). And he only did simple examples where he didn't have to carry much.

I seriously doubt this is "how Japanese multiply" unless the figure is small enough to keep track of in their head.

Square One used to do similar tricks.