Hey guys and girls on Ask Japanese this is CathyCat we are broadcasting here right now from
Tokyo to you and we're going to talk about common errors that foreigners do in companies here in
Japan that can kind of mess up their relationships with the Japanese people that they're working with
so in order to be on good standings with your colleagues watch out for these things let's go!!!
Dress code: now in many countries right now smart casual is totally okay and you can
kind of stroll in to work with jeans and the t-shirt and it's totally fine
not so much and actually unthinkable in the Japanese corporate life where the
salaryman the average person goes with a suit a full suit into work every day
Until "cool biz" a timezone in summer when workers do not have to wear a blazer and a tie
was established in Japan, people still had to wear that in summers and there are actually a couple
of salaryman good heat strokes due to that... but this should express how important it is to look
professional in the Japanese corporate world so if you come for example in summer to the
office and you're like "I don't care anymore I'm going to take a couple of things off" and stuff
like that it might actually not roll there's even some companies who are so strict and who
have foreigners employed who will say we don't do "cool biz" we are still going to wear like
a suit jacket and tie no matter how hot it is in summer that's how important visual appearance is
and visual appearance doesn't just stop at the clothes it also stops at your cleanliness
Next up grooming: your dress code but also the way how cleanly you are is very important in the
Japanese office when the average Japanese person doesn't smell... I don't know how they do it they
don't smell which means never ever ever go to work without having had your shower in the morning and
always make sure that you have proper deodorant that actually works on you because many Japanese
deodorant brands don't work on foreigners and also be sure to style your hair maybe a little bit if
you're a guy or definitely definitely shave that beard
I'm not joking I'm sorry the beard
has to go no matter how fancy it is to maybe wear hipster beard or similar it's a taboo in Japan in
the corporate life in Japan every Japanese male is cleanly shaven maybe only still the boss in there
maybe allow themselves to have like a little bit of a wild beard or similar things like that you're
supposed to be super cleanly shaven and it goes with the idea of "seiketsukan" which means cleanliness
and if a man isn't cleanly shaven it kind of makes him look scruffy, dirty as if he doesn't care
and that's not the image that you want to portray to your colleagues your boss or your customers
So every morning shower shave deodorant and also your dress code and don't forget
if your deodorant is too strong you do not want to be that smelly foreigner in the office because if you
are and if you clean cleanses cleansiness is not up to scratch you will get called
out you might lose customers you might not even get put in front of customers because
you will be rendered inappropriate to be in front of customers so yeah don't be the smelly foreigner
Holidays: this is a big battleground between Japanese people and westerners
who might be working in companies here in Japan because generally many Japanese
people only get two weeks of holidays and they might actually never take it but why?
I know that many people think this is my holiday I've worked hard all year I only get two weeks so
I might go and just take those two weeks because I deserve it my family deserves and off we go...
this is not how it works in Japan... first of all if you're going away for a longer holiday and may
it be two weeks or just one week that means that one of your colleagues will have to go and cover
for you so you are giving them effectively more work and they might not be even able
to work as efficiently in the area that your expertise is... so if you suddenly go and you take
two weeks holiday off causes a lot of trouble for your colleagues maybe they will have to now work
double it maybe they have to work for two people maybe they have to stay in overtime all that kind
of stuff so that's why a lot of Japanese people do not take their holidays or only very short
times and you always have to think of the group harmony again right? I've also heard of a couple
of Japanese colleagues who save up the holidays in case they have to take sick leave for an extended
period of time, the average time you usually get per year for sick days is six but if you know that
you might have to take a little bit more off in the future some people instead take their holidays
so they can take an extended sick leave and again not cause a nuisance or a burden to the company
and no you cannot save up all your holidays and over three years and then in the fourth
you have a really long holiday they generally tend to expire after a year as well so you just
have to let them know, you won't even get extra pay for letting them go and sometimes it's painful but
you just have to do it "shoganai" so you might have to kiss the idea of a two weeks holiday goodbye if
you want to start off on the right foot at a new company and climb up the corporate ladder in Japan
Over time: it is not a secret that Japanese people work a lot more and a lot of
overtime so you need to know that and you need to also be able to do that some companies will
definitely expect you to stay on longer if projects aren't finished and do that in your
overtime or sometimes even in your free time... and sometimes this overtime isn't even paid for
meaning if you sign your contract it will say if you actually get extra payment for overtime
or whether any type of overtime is kind of already included in your salary
leaving the office on time might be very tempting if you're the foreigner you're just like "I don't
care I'm not doing overtime I'm gonna get paid for this" and you're out that will actually be very bad
for your career and for your future because if you look around and all of your other colleagues are
staying that means you're supposed to stay too ... it is kind of rude if you actually leave on time
every day it shows that you have no working spirit and you're not really a team player
There's actually a common apology that will be used in that case if you
leave the office early which is "osakini shitsurei shimasu! which kind of means "I am leaving early
I'm being kind of rude for leaving early sorry" and you're supposed to say this like kind of
feeling bad because you're leaving everyone behind and especially if your juniors or your
superiors are working you're the only one who's leaving it makes you look pretty bad
The senior - junior relationship in Japanese companies and generally in Japanese life there
is a kohai senpai system now what does that mean? The senior is generally there to look after the
junior that maybe just entered the company so their charge is to look out for them show them around
you know help them learn the ropes a little bit and maybe invite them for a couple of dinners give
them some tips and tricks to live in that company work in that company get along with everyone
They might even give you some tips that are not in the rulebook of the company such as "this person
is usually grumpy in the morning, that person it's better if you just hand in the completed
files" or maybe even things like "the cafeteria has really good egg rolls on Tuesdays" stuff like that
so these people your senpais your seniors treat them with respect treat them with special care
because they're doing the same thing for you and sometimes for foreigners they might feel
like they're even like telling you too much "why are they keeping like telling me this or
why do they keep telling me that" it's meant in a good way it's meant to give you a good
transition into the company so just take it as it is and even if they make you run errands and
similar things for them that's a thing that you know you have to give back to them in a certain
level but maybe just one year later new people are entering the company which means
you might be put in the exact same position you become not the junior but the senior which means
you have to show them the ropes you have to teach them how to live in the company and give them an
easy transition into the company maybe pay the first couple of meals because they're just on
their starting salary, things like that and that's the junior senior relationship that can sometimes
be hard if you have to follow orders from above but it is to pretty much help young people come
in and the older ones to help them establish themselves in the company... it's the idea of when
I entered this company someone looked out for me so when someone you know enters the company I look
out for them and that ties into the family system don't just take all the good advice and then the
next year ignore the new person who enters the company it's your job to look after them too
Now if you want to work in Japan of course the very first thing you actually need to get
is a visa yes you cannot work in Japan without a visa don't try and sneak around
for it and to get a visa you have to have certain qualifications and several degrees if at least one
if you can bring that to the table to work in certain industries and get certain types of visa
now be aware some companies will actually not want to give you a visa so and the reason for
that being is a lot of foreigners have come into Japan and exploited the system there's
a lot of foreigners who've come into Japan got themselves a visa with one job and then quitted
just a month later to then do something completely else now in order to prevent that a lot of visas
are not kind of tied to the profession that you are doing and similar things like that
it's hard enough to get a visa so a lot of companies will actually prefer people
who already have a visa and then maybe help them transfer their visa into their different section
Because a couple of foreigners have exploited the system got themselves a visa and then did
something completely else some companies will be reluctant to give you a visa it poses a risk
for them to they kind of need to vouch for you at the start and similar stuff like that
so don't be too frustrated with the company if they don't gonna give you a visa and pull maybe
someone from the pool that's already in Japan before you because they might have had some
bad experiences with other foreigners coming snatching the visa and going so unfortunately
that's the thing that's happening and that made some companies reluctant to give out the visas
Promotion: now you think you've done everything right you went to all the drink events you tried
to really work with your colleagues build the group harmony and all of that when is the time
for your promotion? Depending on your company that might change and it might depend on your contract
a lot of people in a lot of foreigners will be contract workers instead of properly employed
employees which are called say "seishain" those "seishain" positions are super popular in Japan
and even Japanese people are really trying to get them because it is more secured work than just a
contract that get extended every other year... why is the Seishain position so sought after well
you are proper a part of the company you are much more difficult to fire you also get the social
benefits and you might get some other supports that you will not get on a contract so for example
for women you might actually get maternity leave hooray or similar things like that other things
if you are in a contract you're easy dispatched you you're easier to fire you're easier to just
say "well if you can't come into work we're gonna find someone else" and that's why a lot of people
want to be seishain but what they keep saying is Seishain in Japan you have to reach that level
of being Seishain maybe before the age of 30 after 30 even for Japanese people it gets really
really hard to actually find a company that wants to invest as much into you and it is a risk for
the company because you're harder to fire so a lot of people don't get it no matter how hard they try
...it's not just foreigners it's also Japanese...
but if you should be lucky and one day get promoted to
the seishain position another thing I can recommend you is do not flaunt it into the
faces of your Japanese colleagues because maybe you only got it because you have the english knowledge
and it will definitely create a very bad image of you if you're like oh guess what I got
Seishain and your colleagues have been working in the company for way longer than you have
might not have gotten it... whoops but because this position is so hard to fire and because
it gives so many benefits it's a risk for the company to give it out to people so they
are less likely to give it out to foreigners who might just go home to their own country
and more likely to give it to Japanese workers depending on the company ethics
Depending in which kind of company you work these rules might be enforced more or less so
take it with a pinch of salt your company might not be as strict but some companies definitely
are and if you don't know these things you can really damage your career a little bit so just
have them in your bag of knowledge and hopefully you don't have to resort to
some of those tricks too much but most of all the general appearance and things like that that
kind of transforms to pretty much all areas so always look cleanly and stuff like that
I hope you could take something away from this there's more stuff from Japan coming out to you
so don't forget to subscribe to our channel and leave us a like on this video if you took
something nice away from it and don't forget to check out in the description box
there are our other socials and the director and I have done some cool stuff so be sure to check
out what we're doing and I'll catch you soon for more videos here on Ask Japanese see you guys bye