Archive for the 'Culture' Category
“Japanese are polite.” This is what foreigners tell me when they visit Japan for the first time, and I agree at first. It amazes me how courteous the service is of companies and shops in Japan, especially since I have returned from overseas. For instance, early one morning when I visited a bank branch office, all of the bankers greeted me with a deep bow and said: “Ohayo Gozaimasu!” (Good morning). When I walked through the door I also heard a voice saying: “Arigato Gozaimashita” (Thank you very much) from somewhere in the ceiling. Everyone certainly seems to be polite, even machines. But, are they polite from the bottom of the heart?
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July 18 2008 | Culture and Weekly Articles | No Comments »
Advertisements for tenshoku (career change) are found everywhere in Japan. On the packed commuter train there are wall banners advertising career change fairs and recruitment companies. On websites there are sections entitled “job vacancies” and “changing jobs”. On Japanese search engines such as Yahoo! Japan there are online recruitment sites for full-time, part-time and temporary workers. It seems from these advertisements that Japanese have no trouble in finding career opportunities.
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June 28 2008 | Culture and Economy and Weekly Articles | Comments Off
Did you watch ‘Around 40’ last Friday?” “Yeah, it was very good. I felt as if it was my story…”
“Around 40” is a television drama series, which TBS has broadcasted on Friday nights since April. The drama series consists of stories about Japanese women who are around forty years old, dealing with issues such as marriage, work and childbirth. Along with the popularity of the drama, Japanese women aged around forty, so called “ara-fo” (an abbreviation of around 40), have attracted the media’s attention. Many articles about “ara-fo” are published in fashion magazines and on websites. In addition, major Japanese websites such as Nikkei BP, and Yahoo! Japan have “ara-fo” in their Japanese lexicons.
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June 20 2008 | Culture and Weekly Articles | No Comments »
“Yesterday, you said that I had to do that. Now, you ask me to do this. What do you want me to do?? Why do you change your instructions so frequently? I am so confused!” A female worker in her 20s yelled this at a male manager sitting at his desk. The manager in his early 40s wiped sweat from his forehead without a word. A couple of hours later, the male manager was yelled at again by a general manager. “Why cannot you do this? Isn’t it your responsibility to manage your people? We have to do this by tomorrow morning!”
These are typical scenes in the office of a Japanese company. Middle managers in Japan are often in a position of “inside the sandwich”, somewhere between the top and the bottom. This sandwich press is pushing middle management harder than ever before.
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June 13 2008 | Communication and Culture and Research and Weekly Articles | No Comments »
On the morning of April 1st, trains bound for Tokyo were unusually crowded with young men and women wearing brand new business suits. They were new employees who were starting work with companies after graduating from school. They are supposed to be fresh, active, and individualistic. However, they were actually very quite and looked nervous.
Characteristics of New Employees – High Corporate Dependence with Low Corporate Loyalty
“New employees this year seem to need a great deal of care. Companies should take care of their new employees as if polishing the ice to slide a heavy stone towards the target in the game of curling.” This is how the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development characterized new employees in Japan this year.
Even if companies take a great deal of care, new employees are unlikely to respond with high corporate loyalty. “I will work for the company for a while. But I will change my job as soon as I find a better position outside”, a new employee said. “I do not plan to work just for this company for my entire life.”
More care than is needed?
Even if a company offers new employees a lot of training and benefits, the new employees may leave the company anyway when they find better working conditions elsewhere. So, why should companies take great care of new employees when they may just leave the company after receiving training? Well, Japanese companies may just stop offering new employees such training and benefits. As the old saying goes: “Spare the rod and spoil the child.”
April 11 2008 | Culture and Weekly Articles | No Comments »
Blogging is relatively new to Japan, but its popularity is growing. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced that the number of Japanese bloggers numbered around 3.35 million people in March 2005, and was estimated to reach 7.8 million in 2007. So, what has caused the boom in Japanese blogging? Are the reasons for the boom similar to those found in European countries or in the United States?
Insights-out – What is Unique about Japanese Blogs?
1. Many free-of-charge blog providers
There are many blogging services that the Japanese can use. In addition to global blog providers such as Bloggers and Wordpress, there are domestic providers such as Livedoors, Nifty, and Biglobe, who offer free-of-charge blog services with easy-to-use guidelines for new bloggers.
2. Ranking the popularity of blogs
Most domestic blog providers show popular blog rankings in addition to blogging services, which is similar to what Technorati offers. They have a blog page on their website showing blog rankings in total, as well as by category, and the most popular articles, of which layouts are different depending on the provider. Japanese bloggers see the rankings as a measure of their blog’s popularity, in addition to providing details on the number of visitors they receive. Such ranking encourages the Japanese to write even more blogs. I have seen several Japanese bloggers who ask readers to frequently visit their blog, saying the likes of: “Thank you! My blog has received 10, 000 visitors in total! Please visit here again!”
3. Many private bloggers writing personal diaries
There are many Japanese bloggers who write about private matters in their daily life or about their own experiences. For instance, if you would like to get ideas about how to save money, you can just Google “Okaneno tamekata” (how to increase your saving money). By doing this you can get a lot of advice about how to save money from Japanese bloggers.
Reading Japanese blogs gives Japanese consumers a rich insight into markets. They may also be useful for international companies, as long as issues of language can be dealt with.
April 04 2008 | Culture and Weekly Articles | No Comments »
Japanese consumer confidence has continued to fall. In January 2008 the consumer confidence index was 37.5 points, 0.5 points down from the previous month and 10.6 points down from the previous year. In addition to the overall index, other confidence index figures are down, including overall livelihood and income growth. Indeed, Japanese consumers have really lost confidence.
1. Worry about losing investors
One thing that makes the Japanese worry is the performance of the Japanese stock market. Since the summer of 2007, Japanese stock prices have continued to fall. The average stock price was around 12,500 yen last week, whereas the price was around 17,500 yen in July last year. Japanese economists worry that investors may no longer see the Japanese financial market as attractive as other markets such as China and the South East Asian countries.
2. Worry about few entrepreneurial activities
There is not much in the way of entrepreneurial activity that could revitalize the Japanese economy. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s (GEM) 2006 results, early-stage entrepreneurial activity in Japan was 2.9%, the second lowest rate among the 42 countries surveyed. This rate is much lower than that of China (16.2%) and the United States (10.0%). This should make us worry that there are fewer business seeds being sown in the Japanese economy.
3. Worry about educational performance
Another worry is the decline in educational performance of Japanese students. According to the OECD International Student Assessment (PISA) survey of 2006, Japan saw a decline in reading performance between PISA 2000 and PISA 2006. Furthermore, Japan received the lowest score in self-efficacy; a score related to students’ belief in whether they can handle tasks effectively and overcome difficulties.
“We should do something …”
The Japanese government feels a sense of urgency to fix these economic and educational issues. To promote new business, the government offers promotion programs for current and prospective entrepreneurs such as new partnership activities and coordination of market development activities. For education, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is reviewing current educational guidelines to improve the scientific literacy and reading performance of students.
It should be mentioned that Japan should not worry too much about these issues. Japan is still the second largest economy in the world by real GDP. The literacy rate in Japan amounts to 99% of the total population CIA the World Factbook). However, it is true that the Japanese economy is not as booming as it was in the 70s and 80s, and Japanese students do not necessarily excel over students of other countries in any academic subject. It may be, therefore, only a matter of time before the Japanese begin to really worry about these issues.
March 14 2008 | Culture and Economy and Weekly Articles | No Comments »
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