Managing for Creativity in Japan » Being a Foreigner

Bringing Value, Building Trust

Chris Berthelsen — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:00:33 +0000

I certainly do feel quite often (just as a gaijin walking down the street) that I am different and the way people treat me is different. It happens all the time. You’re never going to be Japanese and of course I don’t want to be Japanese but you know, there was never a problem when I was in Hong Kong. I didn’t need to be Chinese there but here there is a really big difference between being Japanese and non-Japanese. It was really great when I got to the stage where I could take a kind of ‘fuck you’ attitude (which I wasn’t able to when I was out looking for work in Japan). Now that I’m not looking for work and people actually need me it’s more interesting. (C:So that was a way to overcome the barrier of being non-Japanese?) Totally, there was and is a wall – a communication and understanding wall. But now people see me and they think ‘now this guy can actually teach me something’ – now, when I go and meet managers they ask me to introduce them to new things or ideas. Perhaps it’s a source of inspiration for them and they are using me as that bridge with the West. It’s an interesting position to be in and it does take a while to build that trust.

Mind Opening

Chris Berthelsen — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:00:27 +0000

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.

Advice to Newcomers

Chris Berthelsen — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:00:35 +0000

“Take it easy. Take a good look around before you change anything. Don’t come in like a tornado – unless of course there is some kind of crisis and you have to do something in an emergency fashion. Go through the process. Make sure that the staff sees that you are trying to learn, you are listening to them. Take their advice, don’t make unilateral autonomous decisions, try to reach consensus before changing anything. So take time. Really analyse. Get their buy-in. Realise as well that they see you as a gaijin (foreigner) so they expect certain funny things to be going on.

For example, I think that they will assume that you don’t understand Japanese culture, that you’re going to be doing things at the last minute, changing your mind at the last minute, not booking meetings a month in advance. These are some of the things that they expect. They are quite amazed that people can change hotel bookings two days before they arrive but in the west, I don’t know if it’s the same in all British companies, but it’s quite normal to arrange to fly somewhere or to change flight plans the week before. In Spain it was quite common to do it the day before or even on the day. Here, we try to book all key meetings one month in advance – with a Shacho (President) of a company that would be a minimum. So, I imagine that there would be some assumptions that a foreigner head of office would not have that understanding and I think that you need to demonstrate that. (CB: Do you mean that it is important to toe the line for a lot of things?) As much as possible I think, they have been employed with bi-lingual capability generally and they have joined a foreign company so there must be some kind of expectation that it is going to be different, and some of them might want that so I think it would be a mistake to try to be a Japanese company. But I think that it is necessary to acknowledge that there is still an expectation that they will want to be treated like Japanese, at least understood and not walked over, and have things explained to them, to try and reach consensus.”

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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.
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