Doing business with Japanese people

The topic today is totally based on my vision and from what I have seen or experienced, not from any book or sites related to this. I will not be able to cover everything but only just what I could recall out of my head right now.

Business here in Japan is a very serious task. I do understand that business around the world is also very serious, but people here took it to the entire new different level.

So, what do I mean by different level?

They prioritize work before everything else in their life. Family, friends, boy friend, girl friend, pets etc.. They also get very very little money out of this even if you are manager class or even C class manager. How do they live out of this environment!? This is the question that I have been questioning myself this entire time while working in the Japanese company here.

Come to work early and get home really late is normal. I have heard from one of my friend’s friend that he has to get up at 4am every day, go to work at 6am and finish around 10pm. Uh?! Crazy right? But that is not for every company of course. I do think that it is because of the society forces its people to work this way.

As the first year employee, you will fully have to listen to whatever upper classmen tells you to do, or the company tells you to do. Basically you have no right to argue them. Working with the Japanese company, you especially have to watch out for the manner that they hold tight. If the company you are dealing with is fully Japanese oriented company, it might be a good way to fully understand or at least some important part of the Japanese business culture (yea, just search it up, should be planty online), or if your partner is some-what global company, then they might be a little bit flexible about it.

Here is something that I might have to warn though. The biggest thing that Japanese companies fear of when dealing with foreign company is language barrier. At the moment, this is changing rather fast because they are realizing the fact that the people cannot communicate in English at all. But they are still worry about this problem nonetheless. So, be aware of this problem and try to make sure that your topic is understood fully across your clients company. Else, the project might have to be extended due to miscommunication. I do warn you already.

Here is some cute picture because the topic is heavy.

Japanese sweets: Mochi!

Happy work day!