Non-Japanese employees are (on the whole) seen as more suitable for change management roles – not necessarily better, but more willing (i). This is not due to any across-the-board skill/ability set differences but rather the result of (1) different preferences (with respect to learning new skills) and (2) employment/career-path structure (relative rarity/novelty of mid-career hires in Japan, and job-change frequency).
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This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail
“(CB: Do you think that specific cultural training, experience or language skills are necessary or helpful? You mentioned earlier that the people who are really well versed in the language and culture are not the ones that are really successful…..)
Well, if you are coming in at Senior Manager level or something you will have come up through the ranks in your home country. People who are more acculturated to the Japanese environment will tend to be at the junior levels. There are cases where people do succeed because there are more job opportunities and different roles for people with a deeper knowledge of Japan and Japanese – you might look at a CV and be surprised that five years ago that person was teaching English. That’s a good thing but I think that there is a reason why you are being brought in as a foreigner. You’re not brought in because you’re able to fit in. Just because you’re able to understand the language it doesn’t mean that you are of the culture it just means that you have been sensitive to your environment. (C: So those skills are not a prerequisite for success in Japan?) No I don’t think so. I think that you need the curiosity to understand that people are different and that they may not always tell you what you want to hear……that they may not be that good at expressing their positions. When I say you need to listen, I mean that you’ve got to be sensitive to the vibe. Take a more holistic approach. I think that people will give you their best if they don’t feel threatened.”
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This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail
There is a real strength to Japanese culture, as opposed to Singapore which is very Western, understanding and open. This is a very closed society and that gives it strength – I see it as a real privilege to be able to be a part of it. Previously i might have found it complicated or irritating but now it is a privilege because I know that I am part of a very small group of people that live here. We are a real minority here and the people have opened their hearts and their country to us – that’s an honour. This cultural strength means that you can’t just get along with blinkers, and live in your own little Western world – in Singapore I could go to the supermarket and get whatever I wanted but when I go to the supermarket here I can’t even get basil half the time.
Coming over here allowed me to open up my mind to different things and ways of thinking. I am becoming more and more fascinated with it because it is opening up a new way of thought for me. Cities like Kyoto and the creativity that went into that, it’s very unique thought and I think that is what is really starting to fascinate me about Japan – this unique thought. The fact that they do do things differently is really interesting. I am constantly falling in love with this city and I think it has made me a better person. I am still incredibility impatient but that gives me worth here, I can’t lose that aspect of being a Westerner, that’s what people pay me for. At the same time I’ve been able to examine other parts of my personality. In our industry I think that if I was living in West there would be so many things to take my attention away from what I am doing but here in Japan I can be very focused.
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This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail
Yeah, our industry is filled with people who have very strong personalities and maybe they want people bowing to them rather than them having to bow. Maybe that’s how I was when I first came over too and I got put in my place pretty fast.
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This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail
Maybe I was arrogant in thinking that I could come in and get a top spot straight away even though my work and my background should be enough that I would be able to do that if I was in another country (like Singapore). But here, I guess you have to pay your dues. (C: So at least for foreigners it’s not a talent or even experience based system?) Yeah, it’s a respect thing and you have to show that you are in for the long haul.
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This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail
I do think that there are certain tests that you have to pass with Japanese people. At first they think that you are just some foreigner who is coming over for three months and they don’t want to invest time in you and take the time to know you. But if you have been around for three years or more then you have passed that test of time I think. It’s definitely a trust issue.
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This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail
C: You were saying earlier that you have to be respectful when you are trying to convey something to somebody. Is that also something that is particularly true for Japan or is it more of a feature of working on an international level?
It’s definitely something that is specific to Japan. I think that if you go over to New York and you talk to a designer over there you will find that people are incredibly rude and disrespectful to everybody. Sydney is the same way. Paris is icy. You just can’t be like that with Japanese people.
When Japanese people experience the way people act in those countries they are incredibly offended and they can’t convey that because they can’t speak English. We went to a trade show in Australia about four years ago and there were some Japanese stores and Japanese buyers who got kicked out of their seats so that some girl the seating guy had met the night before could sit in the front row. They were incredibly offended but nobody understood that and nobody cared. The show lost a lot of business because of it – even we stopped going because of the way that foreigners can treat you. So, from the outside coming into this country you really have to play the game right otherwise you won’t be able to do business, people will shut you out.
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This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail
Another thing that I tell people when they are talking to me about bringing their products over here and saying things like “everyone says it’ll really do well in Japan” is that Japanese people aren’t stupid. They’re not stupid consumers, they are actually really intelligent consumers. People who have never even been to Japan before say these things. If you think that your brand is good enough to bring over here, tell me why. It’s incredibly important for you to know the marketplace before you get carried away. Come and visit, check it out, see if it really is the place for you because Tokyo is a tough city to live in. It’s expensive, it’s crowded, is that really what you want?
That’s some more advice that I always give people when they say “ah I’d love to live in Japan” – do you REALLY? Or do you just want to live in Memoirs of a Geisha? Do you want a Western interpretation of what Japan is?…because it’s really not like that.
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This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail
I think that if you don’t know Japanese it will be tough but I wouldn’t say that it’s impossible because I’ve achieved my dream here. You just have to re-work your head because when you are in this country things don’t run your way, they run the Japanese way. So you have to rewire the way you think, not get irritated by it and find out how you can help. As a Westerner, people here are actually really interested in what you are going to say but the issue is working out how to communicate your message. You need to be really mindful and respectful. Understand that they may not understand what you are talking about even though they may understand the words that are coming out of your mouth – it’s a different way of thinking.
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This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail
