Tag: japan

Top 30 Japanese employers in Germany – Japan’s appreciation of German ‘monozukuri’ continues.

Although Japanese business people tend to think of Germany as being a fellow “monozukuri” (manufacturing/craftsmanship) country, there are actually proportionally fewer (28%) Japanese companies which are manufacturing in Germany than there are in the UK (36%).*

Of course this has a lot to do with the fact that Nissan, Honda and Toyota have factories in the UK and do not have any plants in Germany – as well as the supply chain of manufacturers that they have attracted, many of whom set up production to be as close as possible to their customers.

The biggest sector for Japanese companies in Germany is wholesale. Automotive wholesale is playing a role here, as Japanese suppliers try to diversify away from supplying Japanese car makers and target European car brands as well. It has been noticeable that one reaction to Brexit by UK based Japanese automotive suppliers is to open a branch or subsidiary in Germany and/or transfer customer accounts and sales functions to those branches.

Like the Top 30 in the UK, the biggest Japanese companies in Germany have grown through acquisition. IT services dominate the top spots with NTT at number 1 thanks to its acquisition of Itelligence, Cirquent and Net mobile, as well as Dimension Data.

Fujitsu – the biggest Japanese company in the UK – is the second biggest in Germany. Fujitsu bought out Siemen’s share of their joint venture in 2008. Fujitsu is about to shut down the last remaining computer factory in Europe – which was in Augsburg, and around 1800 jobs will be lost across Europe.

Duncan Tait, SVP and head of EMEIA (Fujitsu’s own regional acronym – Europe, Middle East, India and Africa) somewhat disingenuously claimed on the BBC news recently that Fujitsu’s regional headquarters had been in the UK for 20 years and that “there was zero intention of moving out of London” like Sony just announced. Actually it is Fujitsu Services that has been headquartered in London, with some offices in Europe, whereas Fujitsu Technology Solutions, the hardware side, was headquartered in Munich, with a rather more extensive network of operations across Europe.

But as Fujitsu shifts, like many other Japanese electronics companies, to IT services and B2B, so the locus of power has to shift to where the customers are. Over 80% of Sony Europe’s turnover was to non-UK EU countries, but this is not the case for Fujitsu Services. Because of Fujitsu Services’ legacy of acquiring ICL in 1990, the UK public sector is still a key customer. So it’s no wonder Tait does not intend to shift out of London any time soon.

More recent acquisitions in Germany by Japanese companies do include a fair number of manufacturers – Mori Seiki has finally consummated its marriage with Gildemeister, Lixil acquired Grohe, Musashi Seimitsu acquired Johann Hay and Nidec continues on its overseas M&A rampage. As you can see from the ranking below, Japan’s appreciation of German monozukuri continues.

Rudlin Consulting can develop a more detailed, customised list of Japanese companies in Europe (for a fee). Please contact pernilledotrudlinatrudlinconsultingdotcom with an outline of your requirements.

*2018 Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs – who identify 1814 Japanese companies (this is very loose, they include branches, joint ventures and companies established by Japanese entrepreneurs in Germany) . There are 21 categories including “other”. For Germany the top 4 are wholesale/retail 31% (of 1814), manufacturing 28%, hospitality 7%, IT 6%. UK is 36% manufacturing, 13% wholesale/retail, 8% financial, 8% “other”.

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Toyota Group dominates Top 30 Japanese employers in Europe, Middle East & Africa

We’ve revised our Top 30 Japanese employers in Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) again, this time to include Toyota Tsusho (in at #12) and Toyota Boshoku (in at #29), bumping NYK and Suntory out of the rankings.

The 30 biggest Japanese employers in EMEA now represent over 460,000 employees, around 12% of their total global employment.  EMEA employee totals have increased more than the global totals, at around 6% from 2014/5 to 2015/6 compared to <0.5% worldwide, showing that the region is still growing for Japanese companies.  As you might expect, the total employment in Japan is shrinking, by about 2% year on year.

Adding Toyota Tsusho and Toyota Boshoku made me appreciate once again how important the car industry continues to be worldwide as a source of employment and also how dominant the Toyota Group is.  5 out of the Top 30 are Toyota Group companies (JTEKT and Denso as well as Toyota Tsusho, Toyota Boshoku and Toyota Motor).  A further 4 are purely automotive (Yazaki, Nissan, Bridgestone, Honda) and 6 have automotive related companies in their group (Sumitomo Electric Industries, Hitachi, Asahi Glass, NSG, Panasonic and Toshiba).

Toyota Tsusho is not entirely focused on cars however.  It is a general trading company, and is particularly strong in Africa, since it acquired the French company CFAO in 2012.  CFAO has an automotive sales network but that is only part of its business.  Toyota Boshoku makes automotive components such as seating, door trims and air filters.

Similarly, 8 out of the Top 30 Japanese employers in the UK are automotive and a further 2 have automotive related businesses in the group.  Our revised Top 30 now included Sumitomo Rubber, who have not only acquired the global rights to the Dunlop brand but also bought a UK tyre distributor Micheldever earlier this year.

If you would like more customised reports on the Top 30 Japanese employers in Europe, Middle East & Africa (showing trends in total global employees, Japan based employees, EMEA based employees) and the Top 30 Japanese employers in the UK (showing trends in total UK employees, regional HQ location, region covered, percentage UK of Europe and of global) please contact pernilledotrudlinatrudlinconsultingdotcom

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Japan’s graduates choose stability, career development and work/life balance in the services sector

For the past 5 years one of Japan’s mega banks has always occupied the number 1 spot as the employer most popular with Japan’s new graduates.  This is the first time in 9 years that the airline ANA has been the most popular in Toyo Keizai’s annual poll of online users of its graduate recruitment website.

The airline is particularly popular amongst female graduates, for a number of reasons.  Not only are cabinet attendants considered as being part of the graduate recruitment track, but there has also been an increase in the number of women who are put onto the global staff management track.  Its training and development programme is also highly regarded.  Toyo Keizai adds there has been an overall increase in popularity of travel related companies such as JTB (Japan Travel Bureau – at #7) and JAL.

Financial services dominate top 10

Nonetheless, financial services employers continue to be popular – MUFG continues in the #2 spot and although Mizuho has fallen from #1 to #3 and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp has dropped from #9 to #19, Nomura is at #4, Nippon Life at #5, Daiwa Securities  at #6 and Sompo Japan Nipponkoa (insurance) at #8.

Graduate popularity rankings are keenly watched by the companies themselves.  Although lifetime employment is fading slowly, graduate recruitment is still seen as the the “one time chance” of recruiting and being recruited for many employers and employees.  The relative movements show the reputation of the companies and also the trends in Japanese society and the economy.

Electronics and trading companies losing popularity

So it’s not surprising that electronics companies, trading companies and Dentsu (particularly after the suicide of one of its graduates a couple of years’ ago) have all slipped in popularity.  Itochu is the top ranked trading company at #26 (down from #17 the previous year).  Dentsu is at #41, down from #35 whereas its rival Hakuhodo has risen from #32 to #14.  Mitsubishi Corp is at #44 down from #31, Marubeni at #50, up from #53 but Mitsui has dropped to #85 from #42 and Sumitomo Corp from 62 to 87.   As previously blogged, trading companies offer the highest starting salaries, but also the longest working hours.

Amongst the electronics companies, Sony is recovering, at #127 up from #162 but Fujitsu has dropped from #170 to #210, Canon is at #227 down from #126, Mitsubishi Electric down to #154 from #104 and Panasonic is at #156, down from #88. Hitachi is not much changed – at #139, compared to #136 the previous year and NEC only just makes it into the Top 300, at #292, down from#238 the previous year.  Toshiba does not rank at all, unsurprisingly.  In fact Toyo Keizai’s most recent cover story is “Where can all the 160,000 Toshiba employees go?”  Apparently so many are fed up with Toshiba’s slow death, that they are looking elsewhere for employment, but of course the Toshiba name is tarnished.

Automotive and internet sectors improving but still not in the top half

Automotive companies, still seen as Japan’s strongest brands outside of Japan, seem to be less strong in attracting domestic graduates. Apart from Toyota (at #57, up from #78), the other manufacturers do not even make it into the top half of the rankings – Honda is at #171 down from #154 the previous year, Mazda up to #187, from #232 the previous year, Denso, the major automotive parts supplier in the Toyota group, is at #193, up from #237, Nissan down to #273, from #217 the previous year.

Technology “newcomers” seem to be regaining popularity but are not back in top half either –   SoftBank is at #186, up from #234, Rakuten at #205, up from #225, Google at #278 up from #323 and Amazon at #283 up from #394.

So overall, Japan’s graduates seem to be still seeking stability, work life balance and career development, but in the services sector – which seems a pretty fair summary of Japan’s current economic and social situation.

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April – a time for cleaning and renewal in Japan and Europe

Japanese people living in northern Europe tell me they miss the distinctive four seasons of Japan.  At first this seems a strange thing to say to most Europeans, as we believe we have four distinct seasons too.  But it is true that changes in the season are far less predictable than in Japan, and from autumn through to spring there can be a succession of indistinguishable grey, wet, cold days.

Spring has come earlier than normal this year thanks to an unusually warm winter.  The daffodils and crocuses are already beginning to bloom in the parks where I walk my dog and this weekend my husband and I remarked how busy and energised the town seemed.  Although the end of season sales are still dragging on, the new spring stock is in, with fresh, lighter colours in the window.  The bright sunshine pushed me outdoors to clean the outside of our windows of the winter grime and my husband has nearly finished repainting the kitchen.

Spring cleaning vs the Big Clean

We call this “spring cleaning” in the UK – similar to the Osoji (Big Cleaning) that happens in Japan for the New Year.  We don’t do much cleaning around New Year partly because the days are so short – getting dark by 4pm with the sun rising as late as 8am at the end of December.  Even in the daylight hours it is too gloomy to see the dirt.

Spring is also a time of rebirth and renewal in the Christian calendar.  From February 10th to March 24th this year is a period called Lent, when you are meant to give up vices such as drinking alcohol or smoking or eating favourite foods such as chocolate.  This is a way of remembering the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting in the desert and is supposed to be a spiritual preparation for Easter (the weekend of 26th and 27th March this year), which commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus.  These dates change from year to year – Easter and Lent in 2017 will be three weeks later than 2016.

Pre-Christian origins of Easter

Actually the word “Easter” has pre-Christian origins – deriving from an old Germanic word for dawn. According to the 8th century historian, Bede, there was a northern European pagan goddess of dawn, Eostre, whose symbol was a hare or rabbit – which is thought to be why so many Easter decorations feature rabbits.  Another symbol of Easter, the egg, either made from chocolate or painted hen’s eggs, is also pre-Christian, when people gave each other eggs as gifts around the time of the spring equinox.

A time for cleansing and renewal in Japan and Europe

So, while the financial year of April 1st to March 31st is not as universal in Europe as it is in Japan, and our academic year actually starts in September/October, March and April are still a good time to renew and refresh the company.  The rhythms of a cleansing and preparation period in February and March, followed by a new lease of life in April have deep roots in the European psyche.

This article was originally published in the Teikoku Databank News in March 2016

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Trust, scheduling and decision making – the differences between China and Japan

Three monkeys – Chinese origin to a Japanese saying?

“Japanese people are punctilious about time keeping and the detail of their work, loyal and don’t complain. From a non-Japanese perspective, this conscientiousness, loyalty and perfectionism are something to be respected”. So says Kurasawa Misa in an interview with Erin Meyer, professor at my old business school INSEAD in the Toyo Keizai online.

Meyer has recently published a book based on her 17 years of interviews with business people from around 55 different countries, which condenses her findings into 8 different cultural maps. We have 19 at Japan Intercultural Consulting, and see a lot of similarity in her work with our dimensions and cultural maps, which is comforting.

Kurasawa: Are Japanese people particularly difficult to work with from a Western perspective?

Meyer: Certainly Westerners find it challenging to do business with Japanese people. One reason is that Japanese people are not very emotionally expressive. Also they are not particularly troubled by silence or vagueness. You often hear that when Westerners give a presentation to a Japanese company, it ends in puzzlement. The Japanese audience sits quietly with no response or eye contact. This is confusing for Westerners.

I have had similar experiences. I have asked at the end of a presentation if there are any questions and no one raised their hands, so I went back to my seat. Then a Japanese colleague said to me “Erin, there was a person who wanted to ask a question. Do you mind if I find out?” So he stood up and said “Professor Meyer’s lecture has ended, but are there any questions?” No one raised their hand, so he looked across the audience and then asked one particular audience member – “I think you have a question?” and indeed that person asked a particularly important question. Then, in the same way, various other questions were asked. Afterwards I asked him how he knew which people wanted to ask questions and he said “their eyes were shining”.

I thought I should try this so asked his advice. He said “Japanese people do not make as much eye contact as Americans. So when you ask if there are any questions, most people don’t look at you but look elsewhere. But amongst the audience were people who were looking at you steadily. Those people probably have shining eyes.”

Sure enough, the next time I made a presentation I saw one woman was watching me the whole time, and when I asked if she had a question, she nodded.

Kurasawa: That’s a very ‘Japanese’ way of expressing intention isn’t it?

Meyer: Japanese people send messages in all kinds of ways, and this is the Japanese communication style. If you are not aware of it, you cannot do business in Japan. It will just end with “they don’t talk, they don’t ask questions.” You have to make the effort.

On the other hand, when Japanese people work in a different culture, they have to realise that not raising their hands to ask a question will be interpreted as a lack of passion, or that a message did not get through, or that the Japanese person just doesn’t care.

Kurasawa: In your book, Chinese people are often relatively close to Japanese in the positioning. Yet to Japanese people, there are big differences in the Chinese national culture and way of doing business?

It’s true that when you look at the culture maps, Japan and China are very close. Both have hierarchical organisations, both do not say directly what they mean but still manage to communicate their intentions. However if you directly compare China and Japan you can see some big differences.

For example, I visited China a few months ago and saw a surprisingly big difference in attitudes to planning between Japan and China. Japanese are very punctual and plan everything down to the last minute. On the other hand, in China there are regular changes to schedules. The timing and location of the seminar will keep changing right down to the last minute and the speakers and the participants will also keep changing. However it all works out in the end. Chinese people are very flexible about change.

So it is a very different experience for Americans visiting Asia when it comes to Japan and China. With Japan the scheduling starts months in advance right down to where the dinner will be held. My most recent seminar there started at 10:03 and even then someone said “this is later than planned”! I was very surprised. When you have this kind of experience, you cannot really say “Asian” meaning Japanese and Chinese together.

Kurasawa: So what should Japanese people bear in mind if they are doing business with Chinese or Korean people?

Meyer: If you look at the culture maps, there are three areas in which China and Korea are different from Japan. For example in decision making Japan is one of the countries of the world which most values consensus, whereas in Korea and China there are strong top down tendencies. So in Japan decision taking takes a long time but the decision is almost always executed as planned. Whereas in Korea and particularly in China, not much time is taken to make a decision, but it often changes.

So Japanese people in China often feel unhappy that they are not involved in a decision and that Chinese business-people are not very “professional”. This is not the case, but Chinese people feel that they want to get their products to the market faster than anyone else so prize speed and flexibility.

The second area is around scheduling. Japanese people are very precise about timing and want everything to go according to the plan. Chinese and Korean people are much more flexible about time.

Attitudes towards trust also vary. For Japanese people, the basis of trust is a high quality of work and products, to be on time. For China and Korea, emotional ties are the guarantee of trust.

Kurasawa: So even when countries are geographically close, there are some important differences?

Meyer: That’s the key point. From previous research into diplomats, I saw a surprising result – the highest failure rate in being posted overseas – in terms of not becoming accustomed to the culture or lifestyle and returning home early – was among American diplomats posted to the UK.

From an American perspective, you would think it would be much harder to live Japan where the culture is completely different than in the UK where at least you can speak your own language. It seems that if you feel culturally close to a country, you don’t bother to learn the culture so much and are not so flexible and open. Then you start as a result to feel stress from the differences and become depressed.

Japan, China and Korea are the same. For example, when a Japanese person is working with a Korean person, they may not make a positive effort to understand their culture. So when a Korean person behaves in a way that is different to what they were expecting they simply think they are inefficient, and feel stress. If their counterpart was Australian, they would just understand it as a cultural difference and be more open-minded in their reaction.

What is most important in multicultural or bi-cultural environments is the small differences. Above all you need to recognise that your counterpart’s culture is different. If you think that people are the same everywhere you will end up judging everything by your own country’s cultural values.

Kurasawa: It’s important to take steps towards the other culture, but some people feel it’s too much trouble if it’s only you making the effort

Meyer: In order to get the results you want, you have to show you understand the other person’s culture, and adjust your own attitude. I often get asked “should I stick to who I am, or prioritise being flexible?” In other words “should I focus on doing it the Japanese way or totally adjust to the other people I am working with?” For those who want to produce results in a global environment, the answer is you have to do both.

Global leaders have a foot in both camps. They know how to ask questions of Indian colleagues in a way that will get the right answer. They know how to communicate effectively with British people that they work with.

But there are not many executives who make this effort. In future, the leaders of global companies will have to understand deeply the way business is done in each country, and be flexible in the way they approach how they do things.

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Automotive sector continues to dominate Top 30 Japanese companies in the UK and EMEA

Toshiba has finally published its 2016 CSR report – somewhat low key and apologetic –  as you might imagine given its recent troubles.  It confirms that the total number of employees globally has shrunk by over 5%, with employee numbers in Europe/Africa down 10% and 6% lower in Japan.

Toshiba is still in our Top 30 Japanese employers in Europe/EMEA (see February update below) but is out of our Top 30 Japanese employers in the UK, having lost around 180 employees in 2015/6, bringing the total across all the businesses (nuclear, retail, electronic, medical – although the latter transfer to Canon at some point soon I believe) to 815.

We have added Japanese automotive suppliers NSK and Unipres to the UK Top 30 (see below for download) and revised the automotive sector analysis accordingly (see below for report).  It is increasingly apparent that while the car “brands” such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan might be slightly shrinking their workforces in the region, their suppliers are expanding.

The 9 automotive companies’ 25,000 employees in the UK represent around 1/3 of the total for the UK Top 30, and employee numbers have grown around 2% in 2015/6 in the UK, compared to 7% for the whole region.

Toyo Keizai has published some new rankings on topics such as which of the major Japanese companies’ turnover has increased/decreased the most the past decade, from which we have pulled out our Top 30 UK/EMEA as follows.  As you can see, automotive (names in bold) dominates the big growers too.

Companies whose turnovers have increased the most in the past decade:

  • Toyota #1 (8th largest Japanese company in both the UK and EMEA region)
  • Nissan #4 (#2 in the UK, #10 in EMEA)
  • Daikin #10 (#22 in EMEA) (airconditioning)
  • Bridgestone #14 (#13 in EMEA)
  • Sumitomo Electric Industries #16 (#1 in EMEA)
  • Lixil #23 (#20 in EMEA) (Kitchen, bathroom, housing fittings – acquired Grohe 2015)
  • NTT Data #26 (#7 in EMEA)
  • JTEKT #29 (#22 in EMEA)
  • Sony #32 (#6 in the UK, #14 in EMEA)

Conversely, the electronics companies dominate the list of those companies whose turnovers have shrunk the most in the past decade:

  • Panasonic #1 (#18 in EMEA)
  • Toshiba #2 (#17 in EMEA)
  • Sharp #3 (has dropped out of our Top 30)
  • Fujifilm #18  (has dropped out of our Top 30)
  • Olympus #19 (#24 in the UK, #27 in EMEA)

Although Panasonic has been busy rebadging itself as an automotive company recently.

And a different angle from Toyo Keizai on corporate health – those companies with the best retention rates who are also in our Top 30 UK or EMEA are:

  • Denso #2 (#16 in the UK, #11 EMEA)
  • Toyota #3 (#8 in the UK and EMEA)
  • Mitsubishi Corporation #10 (#19 UK, #28 EMEA)
  • Dentsu #16 (#10 UK, #12 EMEA)
  • Canon #22 (#9 UK, #4 EMEA)
  • Hitachi #26 (#7 UK, #5 EMEA)
  • Honda #26 (#4 UK, #21 in EMEA)
  • Itochu #26 (#3 UK, #25 EMEA)
  • MUFG #39 (#13 UK)
  • SMBC #39 (#29 UK)
  • Daikin #39 (#24 EMEA)
  • Bridgestone #39 (#13 EMEA)
  • Panasonic #55 (#18 EMEA) (some automotive)
  • Fujitsu #55 (#1 UK, #3 EMEA)
  • Toshiba #55 (#17 EMEA)
  • Asahi Glass #62 (#9 EMEA) (some automotive)
  • Nissan #67 (#2 UK, #10 EMEA)
  • Olympus #79 (#24 UK, #27 EMEA)

For further customised reports and databases on Japanese companies in Europe and the UK please contact pernilledotrudlinatrudlinconsultingdotcom

 

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Japanese companies demand too much perfection

Okada HyogOkada hyogoo, senior manager at Microsoft in Singapore, sports what is known in Japanese as the ‘Regent style’ hairdo – apparently named after Regent Street in London, but usually known in the UK as a DA.  He is photographed with his quiff, leather jacket and sunglasses for a recent interview with Diamond Online.  He has written various articles for the magazine, including one entitled ‘60% is good enough’.  The impact of Microsoft on his thinking is clear, in the way he recommends Japanese companies also adopt the “patch” mentality he saw in software development.  “Aim for what is feasible, not the best”, was his lesson from his time working for Accenture in the USA.

He echoes a point I often make in my seminars about the Japanese pursuit of perfectionism, which is that the 80/20 rule kicks in when it comes to costs of making an effort.  It can take 80% of effort, resources and time to achieve the final 10 or 20% to reach 100% perfection.

This might work in Japan where it is normal to work through the night to achieve “the best” but of course this kind of behaviour is not so well accepted outside of Japan.  As Okada says, in some cultures a person who works late is regarded as someone who is not self disciplined.  “They have a much stronger sense of priorities than the Japanese do.”

“Japanese are lacking individual ‘core values’.  At Microsoft we have 6 core values upon which we base our daily work.  They are ‘Willingness to take on big challenges’,’Integrity’, ‘Openness’, ‘Constructive self criticism’, ‘Accountability’ and ‘Passion’.”  Akiyama Susumu, the interviewer and President of Principle Consulting Group responds that it helps to define your own core values if you interact with people who are different to you.

As for being able to speak English, Okada believes it’s not enough by itself – an open and forward looking mindset is needed.  “You need to be interested in the other person, and be prepared to engage in discussion.”  Akiyama says it’s tempting to become silent if someone else in the meeting speaks better English than you do”.  Okada responds that he got over his own English complex when his boss said “you already speak English.  What’s important is knowing what you want to say, and how you want to progress the discussion.”  Okada’s recommendation, to those who are not confident about their English is to get to a meeting 10 minutes early and greet the other participants as they arrive with “nice to meet you!” or “Good morning!” – that way you get warmed up for communicating and also you ensure that you have a presence at the meeting.

Even in teleconferences he recommends getting a question in early like “when can I expect to finish this meeting?” as a warm up, otherwise you end up not saying anything.  For presentations he uses physical warm ups like a few squat thrusts and also practicing his “Rs”.

Another tip for meetings is to get near the whiteboard and offer to write up the agenda and minutes on it.  “That way you look intelligent and hardworking!”

He also recommends saying “Let me finish” and using your hands to signal this.  “Japanese tend to preface their requests too much”.

He finishes by saying that Japanese companies don’t have a very good image in Singapore as employers, and this has an effect on the brand too.  Japanese employers are seen as only promoting Japanese people, and demanding a lot of unpaid overtime.  Products have too many unnecessary features which only appeal to Japanese, rather as Japanese companies unthinkingly promote uniquely Japanese ways of working – such as chourei  (daily morning team meetings).  There is not one Japanese company in the Singapore Top 100 employers chosen by students.

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Japanese cultural awareness seminar in London

Working Effectively with Japanese Colleagues, Clients and Partners

NovIanember 12, 2014
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Royal Over Seas League, Park Place, St James’s Street, London SW1A 1LR, UK

This public  seminar from Japan Intercultural Consulting (represented in Europe by Rudlin Consulting) will be particularly of use to those Europeans working at a management level, with Japanese colleagues on their team. The facilitator, Ian Fallmann, spent 21 years in Japan, 15 as Asia-Pacific Managing Director for Bloomberg. He was responsible for 1200 people in 18 countries and around 25 different nationalities.

  • Why Japanese colleagues will not challenge you if you are their manager
  • Does everything really need to be explained in such detail ?
  • Why Japanese tend to be vague and indirect – and how to interpret what they mean
  • Why Japanese people don’t give a lot of feedback
  • How Japanese society and companies have been changing
  • How decisions are made in Japanese organisations
  • Why Japanese avoid risk
  • How to get your ideas accepted by a Japanese organisation
  • How to make meetings with Japanese people more effective
  • How to build strong working relationships with Japanese
  • How to behave appropriately at meals and other social situations
  • What to keep in mind if you travel to Japan for business
  • What most bothers Japanese about the Europeans they work with
  • How to help Japanese team members be more confident

Instructor: Ian Fallmann

Individual fee: £375 plus VAT (£450 total) or 460 euros plus VAT (550 euros total)
Discounted fee for more than two delegates from the same organisation: £325 plus VAT (£390) or 400 euros plus VAT (480 euros total)
Please see Japan Intercultural Consulting events page for payment online by credit card.

For payment by bank transfer or for an invoice – please contact pernilledotrudlinatjapaninterculturaldotcom
Or post a cheque for the full amount including VAT, made payable to “Rudlin Consulting Ltd” to St Georges House, 26 Princes Street, Norwich NR3 1AE, UK

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The complex art of Japanese gift giving

I asked the chief executive of a British firm that had recently been acquired by a Japanese company how the relationship was developing between her and the senior management at the Japanese headquarters. It was great to hear that she felt trust had been established and that she had reached the point where she felt she could say no, and as long as she gave good reasons, her view would be accepted. The real clincher for me was when she mentioned that one of the Japanese directors had brought a present for her when he visited the U.K.

Gift giving is one of the trickiest parts of Japanese business

Or maybe I’m reading too much into this. I find gift giving one of the trickiest parts of Japanese business life. It is an integral part of Japanese non-verbal communication, so the meaning is often not at all clear to non-Japanese. Sometimes, there is not much meaning at all – it’s just an automatic gesture. Yet anyone who does business in Japan knows gift giving is part of the giri obligation/debt reciprocation culture.

When a senior Japanese executive of a company to which I act as a consultant gave me a beautiful scarf last month, I wasn’t sure what to make of it, as we had never met before. Neither of the other two (male) consultants from other companies was given a gift. So maybe it was just gallantry. Or it could mean he was hoping for my best efforts and advice to his company over the long term. One of his colleagues told me “he just wanted to show off the products of our company.”

Once a gift is given to you, you have to reciprocate

Once a gift is given to you, you do of course have to reciprocate. I dithered for a while about the scarf, and in the end I decided to be British and write a nice thank you card.

Gift giving is more straightforward between employees of the same Japanese company. Whenever I visited my Japanese headquarters from the London office, I would line the bottom of my suitcase with boxes of tea from Fortnum & Mason. “Divisible, edible, local” was my mantra, with a gift for each team I was to meet and some to spare, just in case. My London colleagues were not as big fans as I was of the adzuki bean paste cakes we would get from HQ visitors in return. But as I said to the European staff in a company recently acquired under rather tense circumstances by a Japanese firm: “Once the shortbread and rice crackers start flowing back and forth across the oceans, you know relations have improved.”

The personal touch

Even so, it is difficult to know how to deal with big personal debts inside Japanese companies when the routine box of cookies just won’t cut it. To say thank you for a recommendation he wrote for me, l once gave a couple of bottles of vintage champagne to one of my most important mentors in my Japanese company. But this turned out
to hit entirely the wrong note, not least because he didn’t really like champagne. My (much cheaper) present the next year of a paperback book on a topic I knew he was interested in was far more warmly received.

This article by Pernille Rudlin originally appeared in the Nikkei Weekly.  This and other articles are available as an e-book “Omoiyari: 6 Steps to Getting it Right with Japanese Customers”.  For more on Japanese etiquette, subscribe to the Japan Intercultural Consulting monthly newsletter giving you access to further Japan Intercultural Consulting online resources on Japanese etiquette and other aspects of Japanese business here.

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Sumo or Judo: how Japanese firms embrace or exclude diverse staff

I miss not being able to see the hatsu basho (January sumo tournament) that is now under way in Tokyo, as they don’t show sumo on the television here in the U.K. anymore. It would be great if Harumafuji, the new Mongolian second ranked ozeki, does well*, but it seems this year will be another challenging one for sumo’s credibility, particularly in the way it deals with the foreign rikishi wrestler.

When I was still working at my Japanese company in Japan, trying to develop and implement policies to improve the career opportunities for our “foreign rikishi,” in other words our non-Japanese employees, we had many discussions about what we nicknamed “sumo vs. judo” problem.

The sumo vs judo problem

In a “sumo” company such as ours, the traditional view was that in order to become a senior manager, you needed to join the company (the “sumo stable” or beya) at an early age and spend several years doing menial jobs, pouring the beer for everyone and living in a company dorm.

The sumo equivalent would be cleaning out the sumo beya stable, making chanko nabe stew and undergoing grueling training. So if any foreigner wanted to become a manager, that was fine, but they had to have undergone the same process as other Japanese employees.

Learning the “kata” – knowing the form

As for training, this was mostly on the job, learning from your seniors, as indeed in sumo, where the kata, or form of sumo, is learned by observing others rather than through any formal guidance or manuals. In fact, there weren’t many manuals or formal appraisal processes at all in our company. People just “knew” how to behave and what was expected of them.

For many Japanese companies, this changed in the 1990s. This was partly due to the restructuring needed to deal with the slowing down of Japanese economic growth, but also a recognition that the Japanese company had to become more diverse, not only in terms of nationalities, but in the gender and career background of its staff. It was not only the foreigners that objected to being treated like sumo, but other Japanese people, particularly in the younger generations. Also, the vagueness and lack of transparency often led to cover-ups, verging on what could be deemed corrupt practices.

No point in forcing conformity to the Japanese way on diversity

If you force diverse groups of people to conform to one mysterious way that can only be learned through many years’ apprenticeship, a way most easily learned by a group who share one particular cultural background, then those who deviate from this norm will find that, despite their best efforts, they are only a pale imitation of the mainstream group.

In other words, if you want all employees to behave like traditional Japanese salarymen, then hiring people from nontraditional groups is pointless, because they end up being unhappy, fake Japanese salarymen, or, more likely, quit.

My colleagues and I contrasted sumo with judo, which is also a Japanese origin sport, and has much of the same Japanese ethos regarding the importance of kata and diligence through practice, but is much more transparent in its rules and its teaching methods, a prerequisite, I assume, for it becoming an official Olympic sport for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. I have to say though: I find sumo more charming and fascinating than judo.

* Unfortunately he didn’t. He made a majority of wins 8 to7, and did better in the March tournament that has just ended – 10 wins to 5 losses.

This article by Pernille Rudlin originally appeared in the Nikkei Weekly. 

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