This post is also available in: Japanese
Recent events marking the 30 years since the Berlin Wall fell have brought back memories for me of 1989, when I was working in London, having graduated from university a year previously. Perhaps it was watching young Eastern Europeans being so brave that made me decide that I wanted a more global, challenging job, so I quit my job in a PR company and joined Mitsubishi Corporation.
Luckily my new Japanese boss was also up for such a challenge. Together we travelled around Germany and Czechoslovakia in search of business opportunities. Unfortunately, this turned out to be premature. We soon realised it was going to take many years before disposable incomes improved sufficiently to buy the Honda motorbikes we were looking to sell. The demand was more for shipping second-hand Honda bikes in from Western Europe, and selling parts for repair.
Similarly, our attempts to link up an East German glassware factory with a UK glassware company were unsuccessful. The German factory made old fashioned, heavily cut, coloured crystal glassware based on production ability rather than customer needs. The UK firm was not prepared to make the investment to improve the quality and refresh the designs. I took the German management around the crystal room of Harrods, and watched as they despairingly noted the high prices for items that they felt lacked the craftsmanship of what they had produced.
Thirty years’ on, there is still a noticeable gap in employment and incomes between east and west – but this is mainly to do with a generation gap. There has been multinational investment in Eastern European manufacturing, including by Japanese companies, to take advantage of the lower wages. But there are problems with a low skilled, ageing workforce, unable to speak English and a severe shortage of younger, skilled, English speaking recruits.
Many Eastern Europeans who graduated since their countries joined the EU in the 2000s have come to study and work in Western Europe. Recently I met two impressive HR managers at Japanese clients – both were Lithuanian, speaking excellent English and clearly effective at their jobs.
Eastern European countries are trying to lure their young people back with various cash and tax incentives. Japanese recruitment companies are also venturing into Eastern Europe to help Japanese companies recruit Japanese speakers from Western Europe.
Unfortunately, the 20 or so Eastern European students who attended a Japanese studies summer school seminar I taught at my local university were not very enthusiastic about working for a Japanese company. They worried about work life balance and that the corporate culture would be very strict.
Japanese companies may need to learn from Fujitsu, who are the biggest non-manufacturing Japanese employer in Poland. They emphasise flexible working and benefits such as private medical care, training, free fresh fruit, CSR activities, sports and corporate discounts. This is because countries such as Poland, Romania and Czech Republic are becoming hot spots for business process outsourcing, logistics and IT services, so the competition for employees is fierce.
This article was originally published in Japanese in the Teikoku Databank News on 11th November 2019
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