This is a Day in a life of a Japanese auto repair shop
This is Erina
She's 30 years old and works at a car repair shop in Toyota Japan
And she's just waking up for work
She lives with her parents in this two-story house, which is very common in Japan even outside of the city
You don't take a shower in the morning?
She says she prefers to take baths at night instead very common in Japan
How long does it take to wear makeup?
For breakfast
Her mom makes her an Onigiri which she packs with a Mugicha (Mugicha is a barley tea)
Oh, yeah, and she's thanked her favorite morning drink
Soy Mlik Tea
Unlike major cities like Tokyo
Erina commutes to work by car
She rents a parking space from her neighbor nearby since the two Lots at her house are full
Oh, yeah, and I keep saying Toyota and you might be wondering well, the answer is yeah
The city was named after the car manufacturer as Toyota is located here
Fun fact 85% of the population in Toyota works in the car industry
And Aichi Prefecture where Toyota is located has more registered cars than anywhere in Japan
Oh look she's watching the morning TV news on her navigation screen
So her commute time is about 15 to 20 minutes without traffic
Which is pretty normal here and it definitely beats the average 1 hour long Tokyo shoulder-to-shoulder train commute
Oh wow, did you hear the anime voice?
That's your coworker activating this car security system
Oh wow, just in time
So what the mechanics are doing right now is called Rajio Taiso
Which translates to radio exercises
It's a warm-up calisthenics performed to music and guidance from a radio broadcast
The mechanics here do it every morning before they start work
In fact, it's an old Japanese tradition dating back to 1928
Not all Japanese companies do it these days, but many still carry on the tradition
Oh and the mechanics follow up the morning exercises with Chorei
A morning company meeting to review with each other what work needs to be done for the day
Erina works for a company called Aiho Denki
An auto repair company employing about 30 staff mainly mechanics
Like most people, Erina works Monday through Friday
But she's also required to work every other Saturday
When Erina arrives to work every day
She has to stamp an attendance book
pretty old-school right?
I think the mechanics are still discussing today's tasks
So, how do you start your day?
Many smaller Japanese companies don't hire daily cleaning services
But instead rely on workers to clean the office
It's supposed to promote selflessness and community. What do you guys think?
Nice now the shop is clean as a carburetor
she can finally get back to her desk and work on accounting tasks
Her Japanese title is Keiri Jimu
Which means both office accountant and office administrator
I don't know if this is common in other countries
but let's just say she has a...
Expensive role in the office
Are you usually by yourself in the office?
So it looks like one of them is cleaning a different part of the office
and the other one is picking up a mechanic at a customer site
Hmm the guy gave her something, what is that?
So fax machines are still alive and well in most Japanese companies
In fact, if you ever receive a Japanese business card,
you'll notice that most respectable companies still have a fax number listed
Hey, did you notice how she waited a long time to hang up the phone after talking?
That's because hanging up the phone before the client is considered immensely rude in Japanese business culture
I guess she's busy doing her morning desk work.
So let's go see what's under the hood of this shop
So the weather itself is kind of taking a turn for the worse
It's really raining outside so I'm just gonna kind of see what they're fixing today
What are you guys fixing right now?
Oh got it, that's a replacement AC evaporator for the car
Can you tell me what this is?
Oh basically, it says which mechanic has to do what for the day?
So if you look right behind me
You'll actually see a little shrine and you'll find this a very common in Japanese houses as well as Japanese businesses
They're known as a sense of good luck for the business
Which is actually kind of like a feng shui to it where it always needs to face the same direction
What's actually quite interesting are these magnetic stickers?
These stickers are used as indicators for when someone's a new driver
Basically you attach the magnetic sticker to the front and the back of your car
In fact in my case, they don't drive so much in Tokyo or in Japan for that matter
So every time I drive I prefer to actually have one of these stickers on the car
So right now she's gluing down special receipts called Ryo Shu Sho for record-keeping
these official receipts are used to track expenses in Japan and they're quite magical
As only the total amount of the expenses listed and the individual items disappear
Erina, are you going somewhere?
So ordering and picking up bento lunches for everyone is another one of her daily tasks
But damn it's a pain when it's raining like today especially for filming
Oh I guess a quick smoke to help her along to the next task
It's also part of her job to prepare tea for everyone before lunch
Even though everyone can buy their own drinks from a vending machine
See traditional Japanese business culture is still very apparent in this company
as group needs are placed above the individual
Oh that's thoughtful of her, apparently when it's hot outside she makes barley tea instead she changes depending on the weather
This is the break room and she's now setting things up for everyone,
How nice of her
So how much is one bento?
Wow about four dollars and fifty cents
she further explains that the company subsidizes the bento so it only costs 350 yen about three dollars and 20 cents
Wait, you're not eating with everyone else?
Thanks Erina's hard work the mechanics can have a pleasant lunch break
So the bento menu is always the same?
Hmm Okay, I guess I'm gonna explore more
at least the rain has let up a little bit
It's still a bit cloudy, but it was a lot better than earlier
Check out this car behind me, It's kind of like a three-wheeled little buggy
It has one wheel in the front and has two wheels in the back and it has kind of like a truck bed
And in fact I've never actually seen one of these in my life
and the door opens up in the front right there
I can see that it has even red seats
Oops, I just caught her during a lunch time nap
let's turn off the camera and come back a little bit later
After a nice lunch nap
Erina has to clean up the break room
So it looks like we're going on the delivery run to drop off some parts for a customer
Why did you choose this job?
What's your favorite car?
So they're off delivering the packages right now to the client
And they should be back in a little bit, it took about...
I don't know like maybe 15-20 minutes to drive here
Oh they're back, that was quick
While Erina's finishing the rest of her job this afternoon
It's a bit quiet, so let's play some Inspector Gadget and look around this place
So these two young mechanics are new hires
Let's see what they're up to
Hey, what are you guys doing?
So basically they're removing the black glue from the blocks so they can reuse them for installations
So, what's up for this Porsche
Oh I guess AC repairs are in high demand for the summer
Erina, what are you doing right now?
Traditional Japanese companies are still very much paper-based
So Erina has to prepare the monthly payment slips for each employee
Her second smoke break of the day at least this time, she has a break buddy
So he's telling me that his work officially starts at 9 a.m everyday
But he has to ride even earlier for the exercises and the morning meeting
Damn. It really takes a dedicated mindset to work in a Japanese company
Exchanging business cards when you first meet someone is still very much an important part of Japanese
Business culture the cards though start to pile up so she has to organize them for the CEO
Now she's picking up parts from the storage room for the mechanics she really does everything in the office
So it's half-past five and one of her final duties is to empty out the trash bins throughout the office
Oh look it's a talking anime car
I didn't get a chance to show you guys earlier
What do you think?
All right end of the day time to count the money
So Japanese money is made with thick paper, So it allows them to count like this
It's quite differently compared to America.
I wonder if any other countries counted this way
Nice, finish just after 6:00
I've noticed more and more companies in Japan adopting standard working hours for their employees
But don't get me wrong many Japanese companies still have crazy long work hours
It seems like her dog Coco-chan missed her too
At the end of the day her mom usually prepares a meal
if she doesn't have plans with her friends
And look she's serving hamburger tonight
I think it's a great way to end the day
but what did you think about her day?
As you can see right after dinner they're just hanging out watching TV
And this is like basically a day in the life working at an auto repair shop
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