4 Questions often asked as a Japanese related to work
I recently received a question from a Malaysian acquaintance who loves Japan, and I would like to share a thought with you.
This is my personal opinion as a Japanese person living in Malaysia, so please do not assume that it applies to everyone.
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1. In Japan, do people work non-stop and donât have enough holidays?
2. In Japan, is the salary decreasing after changing jobs?
3. Is it true that Japanese people donât trust people easily?
4. Japanese people arenât motivated to make money?
1. In Japan, do people work non-stop and donât have enough holidays?
Sometimes Japanese people are known to work for a very long time.
After the pandemic, I heard that the working style changed greatly to working from home, but some companies are still conservative.
I would say it depends on whether it is during the holiday season.
Japanese working culture is okay to stop working when other companies are also not working, for example, on New Yearâs holiday, Golden week (the end of April to the beginning of May), Obon holiday (Ghost month in Japan, in mid of August).
So before the holiday season, people work a very long time so that they donât have to work on the holiday.
In those holiday seasons, only people are allowed to be absent, and it is very rare that one person takes leave while others are working except if it is a special situation like marriage leave.
There are many public holidays in Japan, so if you work with a Japanese company, you may often see their whole company closed while people in Western companies tend to have a vacation individually when not related to public holidays.
However, during the holiday season, hotels, flights, and tourist attractions are very expensive and crowded.
So, some people end up not going anywhere even if they have holidays.
In conclusion, Japan has many public holidays, but donât have so much freedom to take leave whenever they want.
2. In Japan, is the salary decreasing after changing jobs?
I have experienced many job changes or relocations in Japan.
In Japan, the recruiting system is very special compared with other countries, and fresh graduates are more valued and have a special hiring term, especially in big companies.
It is slowly changing, but people used to get fresh graduate jobs just after graduation and keep working in the same company until they retired.
In that generation, it is often said to be good to build up a career in the same company and get promoted.
If you successfully joined a very big company and are successfully promoted to the manager level, the person is regarded as very successful in the company.
However, it depends on when he or she thinks about a career change and whether the skill they or already got is good for the new company or not.
Sometimes they might need to start from a less powerful position when their career changes.
So in Japanese culture, if a person wants a job change, the company offers a lower salary than the current one and people accept that.
I knew some people did a job change like that, giving up the higher salary and choosing a healthier working life.
As far as I see people around me working in Malaysia, it does not frequently happen, and people generally get better salaries when they change jobs even if they got a new role with which they have less experience.
There is nothing true or wrong, and I believe either culture has both good and bad impacts.
3. Is it true that Japanese people donât trust people easily?
When I speak to non-Japanese people overseas, sometimes people are surprised that I donât look like a Japanese person because Japanese people are always in groups.
I heard it is very cultural that people tend to be of the same race in Asia.
So, if Japanese people are out of the organization or group, it takes time to build trust, especially in the business scene.
Also, Japan used to limit trade overseas for 265 years during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868.
It is known that Japanese passports are strong to go to so many countries without visas, however, only 20 percent of the Japanese population have passports, and many people are born and die without experiencing going overseas.
With that background, it takes time for Japanese people to trust outsiders, so it is a good idea to think Japanese people are like books that need to be read many times to understand fully, otherwise you might be still talking to a Samurai!
4. Japanese people arenât motivated to make money?
The Japanese decision-making process is very specific, so sometimes they need to discuss many times internally to step forward something.
As an example, when I call a Japanese company and ask for something especially related to money, some people answer the phone and cannot make the decision and they sayâ I will call you backâ.
Also in Japan, there is a strong culture in which the customer is always powerful.
So, for example, if the customer requests something very unprofitable for the company, the company accepts that so that they can come back to them later.
However, it is slowly changing and Japanese companies have become more international.
I have experienced calling a Japanese company, and there is a man who sounds like his background is related to Chinese. He was a manager of the organization.
I had to ask him about a very financial thing and I expected a reply from a Japanese worker who usually says âlet us check internallyâ or âlet me discuss it with my bossâ.
However, the Chinese guyâs reply was a very prompt decision and calculated very quickly to answer my question. It was very reasonable.
I was kind of amazed because it was an unexpected situation, and I thought I had to tell the reply âthe company has still not yet made the decisionâ to the requester.
It might be a good idea to hire non-Japanese people to manage financial discussions and leave that to them so that the Japanese can make more profitable decisions very promptly, especially for business overseas.
