Feb 18, 2010
To Be Successful in Japan
“You have to like working in Japan to be successful, you have to like Japanese people, and part of that comes through understanding things and not finding it frustrating. If you constantly find everything they do totally frustrating you probably just don’t get why they are doing it. This is a factor of both cultural awareness and also personal characteristics. You have to be a bit of a fan of the culture I think, with an open mind and tolerance for different ways of doing things. High tolerance for ambiguity also helps – working within the big picture without understanding it all. You really have to be able to work within shades of grey in Japan because you often don’t know exactly what is going on behind the scenes, no matter how long you have been here.”
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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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