Working in Japan

However, foreigners in Japan often find that their starting salaries are higher, promotions easily obtainable, and working one or more part-time jobs that pay well is not frowned upon by their Japanese co-workers.

Foreigners can often get away with not staying late at the office if they work hard and do their tasks without needing supervision.

Autonomous employees are not the norm in Japan, so a self-directed foreigner with strong initiative and a healthy work ethic can often do the same job by themselves that may require a team of Japanese workers.

Working in Japan widens the social relationship of many Japanese adults, especially for men, as the work place is really their social world. Many companies in and out of Japan share the picture of the Japanese workplace that is based on a lifetime-employment model used by many large companies。However, this ideal of lifetime employment has started to fade as some companies lay off office workers or arrange for early retirement for the office employees.

The Japanese Workplace

Primarily, work in Japan would let you experience practices based on the lifetime employment model that was a result of the 1920’s labor shortages. Due to this, many companies in Japan competed in recruiting the best workers by providing them with better benefits and job security. In the 1960s, being employed by prestigious companies became the goal of middle class children, which then required the mobilization of family resources and individual perseverance to succeed in a very competitive educational system.

Hard work, Loyalty and Harmony

Lifetime employment actually refers to the time from school graduation until mandatory retirement, which is usually at age sixty for most men. When you consider finding work in Japan, and you are a foreigner, you may interact with people who have been recruited directly out of school and provided with large investment for training, and that have no reference point for the western concept of moving from company to company in order to better one’s economic status.

In the Japanese workplace, Japanese employees are expected to work hard and show loyalty to the firm in exchange for some degree of job security as well as benefits, including housing subsidies, recreational facilities, good insurance, pensions, and bonuses. This arrangement often doesn’t fit the need for autonomy and independence of the average foreign worker in Japan, so many foreigners dream of being their own boss and starting their own business.

To find out how to be your own boss in Japan, Contact Us.

When working in Japan, you will discover that for the Japanese workers, though wages start low, seniority is usually rewarded with promotions. They base it on the combined ability and seniority of an employee. Having the ability to create consensus and considering the needs of the subordinates is the basis for leadership in the Japanese workplace. Many Japanese prefer a boss who is demanding but shows concern for employees’ private lives than less-demanding bosses who are only interested in the job.

Japanese people have a system that rewards behavior-signifying identification with team effort – they sing the company song, not take all of their vacation days, and usually share credit on accomplishments with others in the group. Pride in their work is expressed through competing with parallel sections of the company and with other companies having the same line of business.

Individuals working in Japan are motivated to maintain harmony and join in group activities, not only in the work place but on after hours socializing as well. However, the picture of group loyalty may only be a matter of ideology than real practice especially for those individuals who do not make it to the top.

Japanese Yuppies Working in Japan

Despite being known worldwide for their hard work, loyalty and ability to harmonize with workers, more than 50 percent of Japanese workers who were respondents to a 1988 government survey would rather have more free time than an increased income. The larger proportion of those working in Japan who would rather have more free time consisted of young professionals, supervisors and white-collar workers. In the 1980s, there was also an increase in inter-firm mobility with some types of workers due to the result of labor shortages and the changing culture and work attitudes of young people.

Being familiar with the Japanese workplace will help you anticipate how you can fit in to the workplace, or how you can fit your business around this lifestyle, in order to profit from clients and customers in Japan, many of them who work in office situations described above.

To find out how to start a business that caters to Japanese office workers as your clients, Contact Us.





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