Won't Miss #523 - plodding meticulousness

One day, while I was in the post office in Japan to mail a few letters. There were three postal workers and three customers. It took more than 7 minutes per customer because the postal workers moved at glacial speed and paused to check every little detail as they went. One of the customers was filling out a single simple customs form and another was simply buying some stamps. This sort of meticulousness is common in Japan because perfection is valued over efficiency. In fact, it is frequently an issue when U.S. companies set up branches here as the time it takes to complete basic office tasks is unacceptably long and wastes money.

I won't miss wasting time waiting while people slowly go through every niggling detail as if the fate of the world depended on getting it perfect every time.

Won't Miss #457 - air conditioner energy wastage

A Roppongi Hills restaurant the summer of 2011, with the doors wide open to the outside and air conditioners blasting.

The summer after the Great Tohoku Earthquake, the number of people who were carted off to the hospital for heat stroke tripled. This was because the damage to the Fukushima power plant created an energy shortage and everyone was encouraged to reduce energy consumption by using their air conditioners at 28 degrees C. (82 degrees F.). Many Japanese people responded by not using their AC at home all in a spirit of solidarity. However, while average consumers were succumbing to the effects of the heat, businesses were doing what they have always done: leaving their doors wide open and allowing the cool air to blast out into the great outdoors. This act of energy wastage is done to make the business appear more inviting to consumers and despite Kyoto accords and pledges to reduce carbon footprints and the very real need to reduce energy after the earthquake, it hasn't changed.

I won't miss seeing doors of heavily air conditioned buildings wide open and bleeding cool air into the open in an act of stupid and pointless energy wasting.

Will Miss #403 - the slo-mo hang-up

Politeness in Japan can sometimes be carried to ridiculous levels, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the slow motion hang up of phones. In my former office, when a salesman called a client, he put the receiver back in the cradle as if he were settling a sleeping baby into its bed and trying not to make the least little move that would jar it awake. I asked why salesmen took about 5 minutes to perform the simple act of putting down the phone. It's not like the person on the other end can see their gentle cessation of a call. I was told that they didn't want anyone to think they were "slamming" down the phone. By the time that receiver actually touched the cradle, the person on the other end was on his way home at the end of the day.

I'll miss the slo-mo hang-up that people used to do as an absurd tip of the hat to customer service and excessive politeness.

Will Miss #386 - learning (deeply) about Japanese business

OK, no matter how much I understand about Japanese business, I don't know why this video shop is named "Slum."

If you have ever gone into a video rental shop in Japan, you may note that there are often more foreign titles than domestic ones. What fairly obvious conclusion would you reach? If you're like most people (including myself), you would conclude that foreign titles are more popular than Japanese ones. Sometimes, especially for runaway hits like "24" and "Prison Break", that is very much true. However, that is not the reason why there are so many more of such titles in rental shops. The reason is that most of the foreign entertainment production companies use a system called PPT (payment per transaction) and domestic ones do not. That means that the foreign companies provide the discs for free and share the profits according to how often those titles are rented. The domestic ones usually sell their discs outright. Since the former is lower risk, rental shops prefer to stock foreign-made titles.

I have learned a great deal about Japanese business at a level of depth that few others have because of the type of work I do and the way in which I deal with people, and I will miss the way in which it has allowed me to reach well-informed conclusions about Japan and Japanese culture rather than the all-too-easy superficial conclusions that people (both foreign and Japanese) make.

Won't Miss #385 - bait and switch fruit stands

Fruit in Japan is expensive, though not quite as obscenely so as most foreign folks believe. Still, many Japanese people do not routinely eat fruit except for bananas because it's on the dear side and that makes it hard to include as part of their regular diet. Fruit is often a treasured gift, unless it is persimmons that are harvested by the truckload and freely dispensed when in season. Because of the high price of fruit, one can get pretty excited at the prospect of scoring some for a low price as seems possible in the fruit cart pictured above. Large white peaches are usually 100 yen ($1.25) apiece or more. This cart seems to be offering them at the bargain price of 5 peaches for a mere 300 yen. The thing is that this is a bait and switch situation. When you walk up to the cart and try to buy them, they'll tell you that some anemic runts of the litter that are hidden out of easy view are what you can get for the low price (worms and bruises thrown in for free). The prize beauties on top are about 150-200 yen each. 

It's possible that some of these carts are selling what they seem to sell, but in my experience, they are always trying to pull a fast one and I won't miss this sort of shady dealing. 

Won't Miss #378 - status issues

Among the many things I have said which have sparked arguments with other foreign people in Japan was the fact that we regard our bosses in the U.S. as being of relatively equal status to us. Conversely, in Japan, there is the sense that your superiors and those who have seniority have a higher status than you. The issue of status at work is often confused with the issues of power and authority. In the U.S., your boss has more power and authority than you, but not a higher status. You have to do what he says, but you don't have to be deferential, pretend you agree when you don't or overtly show respect to him. You also don't have to perform trivial tasks outside of your job description just because he wants you to do them. In Japan, there is a complex web of status-related issues and behavior based on relative positions, departments, gender, age, etc. Depending on the situation (especially in business), it can be quite complex and require you to follow unwritten rules or unspoken protocols. I have run afoul of Japanese coworkers at times for unwittingly doing the wrong thing in regards to status, and frankly, I think it's unfair to give someone a benefit which has not been earned.

I won't miss the way status must be addressed and responded to, particularly when I have to defer to someone because he has a penis, has worked a few more months than me, or simply works in a department which is deemed to be more valuable than mine.

Won't Miss #354 - (almost always) being at a disadvantage

My brother-in-law, who is also American and lives in Japan, recently bought a house in Japan. He had an experience which illustrated the point I'm about to make all too well and that is that foreigners always operate at a disadvantage when conducting business in Japan. Even if you speak Japanese well and have a native along with you to clarify and digest information, there is always wiggle room for the Japanese businesses to place the blame for any "misunderstanding" on you or to simply cheat you and say it was a communication problem. This is part of what motivates foreigners to break out the gaijin smash. When you are treated as if everything is your fault because you couldn't possibly be comprehending the language properly because of your foreignness, you have limited options. You can bend over and take it, or you can become aggressive.

I won't miss feeling like I'm always at a disadvantage when doing business.

Won't Miss #340 - process over outcome

 Click this version to see a larger version which is readable.

One of my students was corresponding with her company's head office in Italy and she wanted to tell them that an error had been made in the paperwork. The ultimate outcome would not be altered by this mistake, but she simply wanted to let them know someone had carelessly entered the wrong data at an initial stage of the process. The response from Italy was essentially to say that it was all going to work out in the end so 'what the hell is your problem?' In Japan, the people are meticulous about making sure they dot every "i" and cross every "t". In fact, they are often more concerned with this than they are with the results of the work and you can sometimes get yelled at not for the results of your work, but for some tiny insignificant error or lack of adherence to policy along the way.

I'm a pretty careful person who pays attention to detail (when I'm being paid to do a job, not so when I'm blogging, I'm sorry to say), but the frequent emphasis on process as much or more than outcome can be tedious and irritating even for a careful person who rarely makes mistakes and I won't miss it.

Will Miss #335 - office lady trot

It's probably not fair to call this "the office lady trot", since women everywhere do it, but it is something that I witnessed early and often among office ladies. We all know what people mean when they say "run like a girl", but I've seen it taken to an all new level in Japan. This is a "run" which has all of the appearances of increased movement without any but the most incidental increase in speed. The arms flail, the legs move up and down at a higher rate, but velocity remains little different from that of walking. I once wrote an article about this for Tokyo Journal magazine, and speculated that this grew out of the need in offices to give the illusion that one was rapidly trying to get from point A to point B while not actually speeding up. It shows energy and enthusiasm, while accomplishing nothing of value at all.

I'll miss seeing "the office lady trot", and what it says about style over substance in Japan.

Won't Miss #295 - "fishing"

I continue to do freelance work for my former company and as part of this work I am asked to offer my time in line with a company's request. The company will say they want me to do a job between X and Y time with spans of up to 8 hours between those times, but they will only need two hours of my time. They will not say they want 1 hour in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. They will simply say to give them time in that broad range. About 60% of the time, I will offer a two-hour block in their requested range, say from 3:00-5:00 pm and only after the offer is made will the company reveal that they want one hour in the a.m. and one in the p.m. This sort of fishing to see what they get before asserting what they really want is rampant in Japanese business. It's maddening because it doubles (or triples) the communication time spent on reaching an agreement and wastes everyone's time. It's part of the culture of inefficiency which makes doing business with the Japanese a chore when other cultures deal with them. Often, they simply will not be straightforward with you, even when it is in their best interest and is a trivial matter such as scheduling.

I really wish that Japanese businesses would just be straightforward about what they want in the first instance rather than waiting for the first offer to magically match their true wishes, and I will not miss this tendency to do this.

Won't Miss #290 -ignoring the inevitable

When I was working in a Japanese office, my (Australian) boss and I often cautioned the president or our coworkers about certain problems that were inevitably going to come up if we pursued a certain path. We weren't being unnecessarily pessimistic. We were pointing out what would definitely happen. Our concerns were always brushed aside or shrugged off. More often than not, we were told that they'd deal with that problem when it happened. This type of short-sightedness is pervasive in Japanese business culture (and politics). Rather than make a long-term plan to deal with predictable negative outcomes, it is often the case that those outcomes are ignored until they are right on top of you. Usually, this makes the situation much worse than it needs to be and people have to scramble to deal with far greater damage than if the problem had been dealt with during the inception of an idea. I realize this can happen in any culture or company, but it is something which is endemic in Japan.

I won't miss this type of thinking which is tantamount to worrying about crossing a bridge only after it has already collapsed.

Will Miss #219 - stockholders last

 There are a plethora of ways in which the Japanese do business differently than the rest of the world. This often causes problems for foreign partners, and for the Japanese branches of Western businesses in Japan, but certain choices are better for Japanese people. One of these differences is the order of priority when making decisions. The Japanese place customers first, employees second, and stockholders last whereas Americans tend to place stockholders first, customers second, and employees last. In the U.S., stockholders profit at the expense of workers, even if it means cutting health insurance, poor working conditions, and low wages. The Japanese have more of a sense of a social contract between companies and citizens. That's not to say that Japanese employees live in some sort of dream land when it comes to working conditions (nor that great sacrifices are made for them), but just that their interests are a higher priority than in Western companies.

I'll miss this way of doing business, and the effect it tends to have on the quality of life for employees in Japan.

Will Miss #187 - soft socialism

Japan has some overt forms of socialism such as the national health insurance scheme. It also has some forms of what I call "soft socialism." This is where pressure is indirectly placed on companies to do what is best for society rather than their bottom line. Large companies in particular will often hire more people than absolutely necessary if they can reasonably manage to do so as a way of keeping more people employed. This is one of the reasons you find that people mill around their offices with little to do at some Japanese companies. The companies don't do this out of a sense of altruism, but rather because the government will essentially tell them that if they don't do their part to encourage social stability by offering salaried positions to people, the government will step in and make some new laws or regulations to force their hands. Though the number of companies doing this has slowly diminished as the economic situation has gotten worse, it still happens. The extent to which it has decreased is part of the reason crime has gone up in Japan and the birth rate has gone down.

This type of "soft" socialism has been a big part of what has kept crime low and economic disparity between people relatively small, and I'll miss the positive social effects it brings.

Won't Miss #187 - consensus that's not

Back in the 80's when Japanese businesses were scooping up high profile real estate in the U.S. and the Japanese were calling Americans lazy and stupid, many books were written about Japanese business style and how it accomplished such great economic success. At that time, people talked about how Japanese made decisions by consensus and how getting everyone on board played a part in making things work. Now, Japan has been served some humble pie and the "economic miracle" was really just a bubble that burst two decades ago, but the Japanese still practice this same consensus. The thing is that it's not really a consensus at all. It is everyone agreeing with the boss whether they agree or not. In fact, if you hold out because you think a choice is really bad, pressure will simply be exerted on you to go along to get along and a meeting will drag on for hours until the resolve of the last man is worn down and he gives in. The main point of this type of "consensus" is not to make the best decisions and to have everyone behind them, but to make sure responsibility for failure can be evenly portioned out to every single person who was a  party to the "decisions" rather than the (usually high status) individual who was actually responsible.

I won't miss this consensus that's not actually a consensus in business.

Will Miss #174 - local straw goods shop

On the corner leading to the street that comes to my apartment, there's a little shop that sells items made from straw. Mostly, these include brooms, but there are also woven items like baskets. This shop is run by a little old man who was ancient when I arrived 20 years ago, and seems to be little older now. Every time I approach my apartment, I see this little shop, and I wonder how the old man can possibly make a living from this, and I marvel at his dedication to maintaining this tiny little business. I also have a strong sense of how "Japanese" the presence of the shop is. That is not only in terms of the types of wares, but also in the fact that there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of these types of little shops ran by old people that see little or no business yet remain standing for years and years. These businesses are something I'll always associate with life in Tokyo.

I'll miss the little old man's straw goods shop, and what it reminds me about Japan.

Won't Miss #138 - no one taking responsibility

Back when I was working in a Japanese office, we had continuous difficulties with things that were not getting done because the person who should look after that particular duty was not exactly specified. There were plenty of ridiculously obvious problems that could be solved in a short time with almost no effort that would be ignored because no one was willing to just do it without some sort of official authorization. This would include things like throwing out an old, abandoned computer that was in everyone's way, cleaning the microwave oven when it was covered in food spatters, or tracking inventory to make sure we had enough materials for clients (or didn't order more of material that we had too much of). Like the chair in the middle of the mob of people pictured above, people would go around a problem that could easily be solved if someone would just take it upon themselves to just deal with it. Japanese people don't just take things upon themselves for the most part because they are unwilling to risk the illusion that they are usurping someone's prerogative.

I won't miss the tendency of people to go around a problem just so they don't have to take responsibility for taking the initiative without authorization.

Won't Miss #131 - working long, not smart or hard

We all hear again and again that the Japanese are hard workers, but the reality isn't quite what you'd expect based on the reputation. Anyone who works in a Japanese office for any length of time and learns to really understand what is going on discovers that the Japanese work long, but not necessarily smart (or hard). The emphasis is on looking busy and hanging around the office, not getting work done efficiently. People who do little all day, but stick around until just after the boss goes home have a better reputation in the companies than those who get three times as much actual work done and go home on time. When I worked in a Japanese company, it was a constant frustration for me that I was greatly more productive in the 7 hours I worked than the Japanese were in the 9 or 10 hours they worked, yet they were viewed as better workers than me simply for pointlessly and fruitlessly milling about the office several hours a day.

I won't miss this aspect of Japanese business culture.