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My brother has been working in a traditional Japanese business.
He came back to the UK after the recent tsunami, and has now returned. I have just heard that his apartment is still standing and he has electricity. This is particularly good as he is in the Fukushima area but out of the evacuation zone. While I am worried for his health and well-being it is his decision to return which I completely respect.
He has been telling me about the business culture which I found fascinating. Here are some specific points:
Traditional Japanese way of business
All the employees clean the building and are expected to contribute and nobody is employed as a cleaner. Cleaning takes place every day before the official working day starts.
Salespeople do the physical work of helping to get the product on the vans for delivery.
All customers are treated with equal importance whether large or small.
Any problem with product is a very shameful (and rare) event. The whole department bow and apologise to the rest of the company.
A gong sounds for the start and end of the day, tea break and lunch break, but nobody stops working immediately. Two girls make tea and bring it round to everyone at lunch and tea time.
Phones and computers are shared, and some accounts still written out manually.
There is a meeting everyday which all attend. Each employee takes it in turn to lead the meeting and announce any particular details.
Salaries are paid into the bank, but the payslip is handed over personally to each individual by the boss who is also the owner. The staff wait in line, and are handed the payslip with a bow and a word of thanks, and receive the document with an expression of gratitude and again a bow.
An exercise period of about 10 minutes takes place at the start of the day in a covered courtyard. Attendance is voluntary.
I understand that individuals are by and large safe in their jobs for life with this company.
There may not be very many businesses like this, where everyone does everything.
From the western perspective it seems like an old-fashioned way of doing business. I personally find it inspiring to hear of the different ways of creating a business. In this instance I am attracted to the idea of more of a community, but imagine there is more injustice, too. But as the community is tighter than in a western medium sized business it may help them to weather the economic trouble after the tsunami.
In case you wondered, my brother is the only westerner working in the company. His Japanese is excellent.
Hello, I am the brother in question! I am delighted my sister Jean put up this information and sorry I have only just seen it now. All the details are right – except I did manage to get five days off in the whole of December 2010 (that’s including weekends, New Year’s Eve etc.) but few of my ex-colleagues were so lucky! I am now back in Fukushima. The job Jean describes was so “idyllic” (if I may quote Satu Salo-Bosley) that I quit in March, having fully intended to stick it out for a year (another six months) to save everyone’s faces… Anyway I am now much happier in an English-teaching job in a High School. Even there life is not without its cultural differences… before each lesson begins all students stand up, bow and say “onegai shimasu” which in this case implicitly means please share your wisdom with us (!) and similarly at the end of the lesson there is another bow and a sort of grunt which I think means thank you. Of course there is no graffiti, vandalism, smoking or whatever…!
Yes I am sure the culture varies in different parts of Japan and I am not sure that there are many businesses like this any more. I am interested that it sounds idyllic to you because on the surface it is much more caring than we are in the West. I didn’t mention that they hardly have any holidays (apart from the festivals) – my brother had one free day off in December. I suppose nothing is perfect.
My experiences of Japanese culture is mostly through harpist colleagues/old student friends. My experience is hardly representative of Japanese culture as a whole since everyone I knew where female, from Tokyo and from very, very competetive background. I suppose Jean your comment about injustice may lie on similar grounds. I have since got to know Japanese from other parts of the country and of different professions. There is a problem with the notion of not losing one’s face as it is difficult for a Japanese person to admit that they have been wrong or to take any blame on their own shoulders. Otherwise your discription of a traditional Japanese business sounds idyllic and more democratic than ours where one sticks to the ranking one has within a company. There may be vast differences between Tokyo ( maybe Kyoto) and the rest of the country.
Thanks Sharon. I would guess it is difficult to know when the Japanese don’t like a house, as the etiquette is that they say Yes (Hai) which really just means that they are listening. It is rude to say No to someone’s face.
It is such a different culture. Brief exerpt from an email from my brother last night reads
“One oldish woman who survived the tsunami by clinging to a tree for 15 hours has given the tree a name and was shown on TV thanking it profusely and promising to tend it carefully for the rest of her life. And a father who has lost his 10 year old daughter was shown on her birthday leaving a cake and presents in front of the ruins of their house.”
Thanks Jean for this very interesting. I have met many Japanese through relocating staff to the UK and I have found them, calm, respectful and grateful to accept knowledge in the areas and accommodation we offer them.
I do have to think a little more about conversational topics as communication can be a little stilted at times. If I understand correctly the etiquette is to wait to be asked a question rather than start random conversations. It is great to learn about different cultures as we all have so much to learn.