Having lived in Japan for three years and employed as a temp-worker by the same employer for that time, I saw firsthand how the Japanese work in Japan. I was working for a city government entity in their board of education and can say that there were more artificial holidays requiring office closures than anything experienced in the US.
There is no doubt about it that the Japanese put in long hours. On a short day, they may work 10 hours days and on a long day, 12 or more hours. The idea that Saturday and Sunday are reserved as "off days" is more like working on Saturday and off on Sunday.
But, it is important to define "work" as the Japanese do. In the US, there are tasks and deadlines and there are groups of people that are working on those tasks to meet those deadlines. Well, the government workers in Japan are a lot like the ones in the US and will work a bit, loaf a bit then have a pointless meeting where nothing will be resolved then shoot the breeze a bit then the next thing you know, it's around 7pm, and you have really accomplished nothing since the meeting ended at 4pm.
The idea of a guy knocking off work at 5pm is a big no-no due to the culture. The idea of working a 50 hour not 40 hour week is the norm and the overtime that you put in may or may not be recognized at time and a half.
As the old Navy saying goes, "Work Smarter, Not Harder". While this scenario is based on my observations of the Japanese government worker, this is not too far off the mark having worked for a year in California for an old-fashion Japanese trading company. This was over five years ago and the idea of distributing info via e-mail was seen as taboo. Ridged, structuring of meetings and people sitting in assigned seats and information being passed in Japanese with people like me who do not know the language at the business level were the norm. Doing something "more manageable" was seen as taking the easy way out.
A few things that must be taken into consideration about working for a Japanese employer are that you must adapt to their ways, they will not adapt to yours despite being in your home country, you must be very patient, and you must get use to being henpecked to death and the way the Japanese manage is by micro-managing their underlings. Promotion is based on seniority, not results. While these are my findings, the Japanese are changing their ways while operating outside the US. For example, they realize that outside of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other big cities with Japanese communities that they cannot assume that the average American can understand Japanese or operate as the Japanese do. Therefore, there is only one Japanese person working at a branch office in "Middle America" and that Japanese manager's staff comprises of an all-American staff and the American foremen report to the Japanese manager and communication passes through the manager and down thought the foreman to the front line of American workers from the home office in Japan. (Top-down) The front line workers work in shifts and their needs are channeled back to their American foreman.
Furthermore, it was noted that in Japan, the fast food chain, KFC will change their pay structure to compensate employees who put in overtime which is similar to what goes on in the US.
Today's picture was taken in May 2006 and is a tribute to the American professor who introduced agriculture from the West to Japan, Dr. Clark. His quote was "Boys be Ambitious". Underneath me should be a sign that reads "Work Smarter, Not Harder"
The Divine Wind Vault
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