“I am quite willing to send people on training courses. If I had a boss who had that attitude I would go out and find the training courses and do it. I’ve asked people to find the courses that they want to do and while I’m not going to give up on it I haven’t had much luck. I’m not so sure that formal training is a big thing in Japan. People tend to learn on the job so doing outside training may be a bit too different from the norm.

I think that the reason for this is simply that people in Japan learn on the job. It really is the way that it is done – in larger companies they move people around in different roles so you could be the sales manager in Fukuoka one year and then you’ll be doing operations management in Hokkaido the next.”