How to impress a Japanese..
 

any advice and tips on how to impress a future employer in Japan..

it would be very helpful.. thanks in advance!:)

I going on the assumption that you could work extra hard and offer to be very helpful. Oh, and speaking good Japanese would probably be very impressionable as well.

Punctuality is a must.

One good thing to do is to show that you are dedicated to the company. Remember that in Japan doing a lot of overtime is expected. Someone I know got in trouble with his boss for leaving on time everyday since he has a one year old kid. The boss got angry because he wasn't doing the normal 150 hours of overtime.

Learn the language, nothing impresses the Japanese more than foreigners who go to the trouble of learning their language. Say you love the food, especially "natto", and prove it by eating it when you go out to lunch with your co-workers. Learn how to use chopsticks properly, Japanese will always look to see how well you use chopsticks. If you can't use them well, they won't say anything, but if you do use them well, they will always compliment you.

Learn basic manners, such as how to bow. When bowing to older people or superiors, you must bow deeper. Always greet your neighbors or co-workers when you pass them, and always thank everyone with whom you do any type of business.

Always, without exception, be on time. In Japan this means 20 to 30 minutes early. Try not to be the first one to leave at the end of the work day. Sometimes this is unavoidable as you may need to catch a train or bus. When this happens, you must apologize for being the first to leave "o-sakini shitsureishimasu".

Dress appropriately, which means you should dress like your co-workers, and not your superiors. Foreigners have a little more leeway here than Japanese, but even foreigners are expected to fit in somewhat.

wooow loL!!! wtf x.x that's a joke? is that why the suicide rate for working class in Japan is sooooo freaking high!?!?

Here in America...You have to beg for overtime. I once got yelled at for staying 10 minutes overtime to help a customer pick out what printer she wanted because no one else was willing to help her.

It's true about it being normal to work a lot of overtime, work ethnic is a big deal in Japan. That's why you see things like this happen:

Getting overtime is one thing, getting paid for it is something else. Salaried employees do not get paid overtime, so Japan's "Salarymen" are generally screwed.

On the other side of the coin, during a 14 hour day, they may only do 4 hours of real work.

wait so they are expected to work overtime without pay?

Yep, and that's why I always find it funny when 16 year olds dream of working in Japan without realizing how different Japanese work ethics are.

hahahaha yeah. Well, my mom lived in tokyo for 2 years when she was in the military and she told me alll about their work style...Though, she did forget to mention the extreme overtime.

Well I guess that'll keep lazy americans like myself from ever wanting to live over there.

It would be a really amazing experience...But i'd probably end up killing myself because it sounds like 'salarymen" as you called them, have no social life..and have no home life. They just work for their family until they die....

May I be honest here? I seem to disagree with almost everyone posting here.

If I were the employer, I probably wouldn't hire you if you showed all these qualities that these posters are advising you to show. I see no point in hiring a non-Japanese who tries so hard to look, act and live like a Japanese. I'd hire a real Japanese if I wanted my employees to possess those qualities that are uniquely Japanese.

You wouldn't think you would last long if you had to act like someone that you weren't on a daily basis, would you? Japanese employers prefer to hire people that they can imagine will be working for them for 10-20 years.

I'd hire a non-Japanese if he had the qualities that I couldn't expect my Japanese employees to have so that he would help broaden the horizon for my company by bringing in new ideas, new perspectives, etc...

Bingo. The only social life is drinks after work with their co-workers. The general idea is "the way of successive generations", meaning that you work hard to get your children into good schools, so that they can get a better job than you had. That is the reason for such strong emphasis on education in Japan. Without getting good grades, and getting into the "right" schools, your potential future is severely limited.

Another bad thing about Japan which people often hear little about is the typical married relationship. The husband works, the wife stays home. Sex rarely occurs, and occurs even more rarely once children are born. Such relationships are what keep "relief centers" and "soaplands" in business. I had fun looking at the signs for such places in Kabukicho last weekend.

thanks for the tips and advices..

I hope you can post more.. thanks!:)

maybe I can contribute something different in the company... im just asking for little tips and pointers, not to change myself entirely...

If Japanese wanted employees just like them why do they have to invest in other countries?

...Do you know how many threads i went through and had to post just to get what you just told me?

THIS is the kind of info I was looking for about life as a Japanese male/female... AND THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE THREAD! This is the information I wanted to know about crazy cultural differences

Exactly. Everyone here wants to live and work in Japan, but the nuts and bolts of actually doing it are a little different.

That's why you see things like this happen:





wow.... scary!!!
(btw- i have no idea why sometimes i can get this thing to do quotes and sometimes i cant... sorry!!)

Don't think that Japan and the US are all that different in terms of working hours. Just because Japanese dads sometimes come home after midnight doesn't mean they were at the office the whole time.



WORK HOURS PER YEAR BY COUNTRY

Those charts always show American's working more than Japanese. But my wife always points-out the fact that they work so much UNREPORTED overtime that the statistics are probably incorrect.

This chart doesn't show Americans working more than Japanese.

In America you work for your family.

In Japan you work for your company.

Understood. I wasn't making an arguement, just adding to the thread. :)

Sometimes, lately, the media often reports that americans work more than others in so many countries. Maybe France, but not Japan.

You can't take that chart at face value. It's obvious that Americans work more than many other countries, keeping up with the Joneses isn't always easy.

Japan and America enforce labor laws much differently. The laws are actually more severe in Japan, but rarely enforced. Labor laws in America are enforced vigorously. I would guess (from my own experience) that the figure for working hours in Japan is probably off by 20%. My girlfriend works in an office in Tokyo, and she's getting almost as many hours listed in the chart in overtime. She still has her regular hours to factor in on top of that.

My wife worked at a bank when we lived in Japan. No one went home until all the money was counted (of course) and all books closed (all all soroban put away properly:) ). Thus, there was overtime every day, but they were only paid up to the point when the bank was closed.

Ah, Nagoyankee, you make sense as usual. The punctuality I mentioned is universal, but the Japanese work ethic pays adheres to it a little more than westerners do these days. Other than some basic survival tips like etiquette and knowing enough Japanese to navigate are probably, I could not think of any specific Japanese traits to recommend because what you have pointed out it bound to be the case.

No employer hires a foreign national because they are as much like their own people as poosible. Its not worth the legalities. Why would you pass over your own countrymen, unless it was to get an aspect they don't have? Americans hire foreigners for the same reason any other country would - the unique perspective on their industry that foreigners can provide. It may be a difference in methodology, view of the market, or a special skill. But it certainly isn't so that you can reinforce and blend in with what the company already has.

A lot of these things are simple generalities. If one wants to fit in with Japan, then buy some books on culture and cultural anthropology. Once you have a general idea of culture and how it affects peoples actions and psychology (culture affects everything from breathing rate to how you gester according to the words you use) then read tons of stuff on japanese culture, psychology and history.

If someone asks for cultural differences, then you get generalizations. If you delve deeper (as I mentioned above) then the small nuances become more clear. study how poeple walk and move. Learn to sit seiza properly, learn about eye-contact. Learn that when someone says, "we should meet and go drinking soon," it is just a politeness and probably won't happen. when someone offers an invitation and you cannot attend, don't just say no. Say, "I'd like to," then, "but I'm not sure I can make it," and add, "maybe next time." I'm sleepy and worked all night, so I might be rambling at this point. But I think you'll get the picture.

To get back on the subject of how to impress the Japanese...

No urinating in public >.>;

No running around the pool

No urinating in the pool

No diving off the low board

No 'giving the bird"

No racist jokes while visiting a temple

and No skinny dipping in a public fountain.

So she is at the office 16 to 18 hours a day?