Moshi moshi, Japan? (2) — The Japanese mindset seen from a recruiter

“Moshi moshi, Japan?”, held in Geneva, 13 February 2015

Serge, who worked as a recruiter of the Japanese in Tokyo for two years, was the theme setter this time. We learned interesting insights on Japanese candidates and discussed their work mind-set.

Key words:

Foreign companies want to hire the Japanese, as the Westners are too aggressive for the Japanese culture.
The Japanese are very timid in speaking English. A non-Japanese recruiter must speak Japanese.
Three major challenges; 1) to convince a candidate to meet me for the first time, 2) fear of change, and 3) strong loyalty to the present company, even if he wants to change it.
“It is almost a babysitting” — Must accompany the candidate from A to Z; from listening to his fear of departure, his partner’s opinions, through to how to explain his departure to his boss.
Women candidates were more autonomous then men and less fearful.
“Responsibility ” for the Japanese: A killer word of his boss, “Do you leave your responsibility?”. The sense of “responsibility by the Japanese is much stronger than Europeans’. It’s a life commitment. Some candidates change their minds at the last moment, due to the sense of loyalty to the present company coupled with the sense of “responsibility”.
Japanese employers are much more submissive to their employers than Europeans.
A recruiter must establish the confidence with a candidate first. Empathy is important. Drink after works.

Thank you very much for all the people who participated in the meeting.

Forthcoming meetings —

Friday 13 March, Japanese market for innovative start-ups

Friday 17 April, Uchi and Soto, the key concepts of the Japanese relationship building

Friday 26 June, Negotiations with Japanese companies (To be confirmed)

Participants: Anyone interested in business with Japan.

Tme: From 18h00 to 19h15

Place: Starbucks, Rive, Geneva central area

Languages: French and English

Organisation fee: CHF 10.-

Registration: By e-mail or phone call to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics

Yoshiko.kurisaki@gmail.com, Tel. 076 411 6076

Moshi moshi, Japan? — Geneva, Fridy, 13 February

You are cordially invited for “Moshi moshi, Japan?“, in Geneva on Friday, 13 February

“Moshi moshi, Japan?” is an informal meet-up with people who are doing business with Japan. Though Japan is a fascinating market, its business culture is nothing like others. In addition, handling the culture well is the key to success with Japan.

What are other people doing to work well with Japan?

What works and what doesn’t?

What breakthrough did other people make?

Let’s exchange experiences and discuss over coffee!

Mr. Serge Biro, Head of IT Recruitment, SCS hr solutions

on “The Japanese mindset seen from a recruiter“

Participants: Anyone interested in business with Japan.

Date and time: From 18h00 to 19h15, Friday,13 February

Place: Starbucks, Rive, Geneva central area

Languages: French and English

Organisation fee: CHF 10.-

Please register: By e-mail or phone call to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics

Yoshiko.kurisaki@gmail.com, Tel. 076 411 6076

I look forward to seeing you!

Yoshiko

Forthcoming meetings —

Friday 13 March, Japanese market for innovative start-ups

Friday 17 April, Uchi and Soto, the key concepts of the Japanese relationship building

Friday 26 June, Negotiations with Japanese companies (Tentative)

Moshi moshi, Japan? (1) — Managing the Japanese from distance

We enjoyed the first meeting of “Moshi moshi, Japan?”, held Geneva, 23 January 2015.

Tokyo railway station conserves its history surrounded by hi-rise buildings

Anne opened the floor by presenting her experience with a sales team in Tokyo. All the people around the table shared his/her experience and insights on Japan.

Key words:

“We wanted the branch in Japan to adhere to the global process. The Japanese team said, ‘yes’, but in practice, there was no change. They continued doing it in their own way as before.”
“To do business with Japan, one must meet people regularly, say, 3 to 5 times a year.”
“Meeting with the Japanese in informal opportunity is important.”
“It is annoying though that one must think what’s behind all the time.”
“Be careful, the Japanese don’t say ‘No’, but say it in very different manners.”
“Japan is at the highest end of the ‘High context culture’. Emotional intelligence counts in communication.”
“Stay open-minded, accept what it is and build the trust, before business.”

Thank you very much for all the people who participated in the meeting.

Forthcoming meetings —

Friday 13 February, The Japanese mindset seen from a recruiter

Friday 13 March, Japanese market for innovative start-ups

Friday 17 April, Uchi and Soto, the key concepts of the Japanese relationship building

Friday 26 June, Negotiations with Japanese companies (To be confirmed)

Participants: Anyone interested in business with Japan.

Time: From 18h00 to 19h15

Place: Starbucks, Rive, Geneva central area

Languages: French and English

Organisation fee: CHF 10.-

Registration: By e-mail or phone call to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics

Yoshiko.kurisaki@gmail.com, Tel. 076 411 6076

Moshi moshi, Japan? — Geneva, Fridy, 23 Jan.

A Happy New Year!

At the beginning of the new year of the sheep, you are cordially invited for the first meeting of “Moshi moshi, Japan?” to be held in Geneva on Friday, 23 January.

“Moshi moshi, Japan?” is an informal meet-up with people who are doing business with Japan. Though Japan is a fascinating market, its business culture is nothing like other cultures. In addition, handling the culture well is the key to success in business with Japan.

What are other people doing to work well with Japan?

What works and what doesn’t?

What breakthrough did other people make?

Let’s exchange experiences and discuss over coffee!

Mme. Anne Van Walleghem, Head of Compensation & Benefits, Global HR, Nobel Biocare, will share her experience on “How do we work with Japan over the distance?”

Participants: Anyone interested in business with Japan.

Date and time: From 18h00 to 19h15, Friday,23 January

Place: Starbucks, Rive, Geneva central area

Languages: French and English

Organisation fee: CHF 10.-

Registration: By e-mail of phone call to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics

Yoshiko.kurisaki@gmail.com, Tel. 076 411 6076

Enlightening women by the social media – Women in Digital Switzerland

The digital life has been well established in Japan and Switzerland. In contrast, however, the presence of women in the ICT (information and communication technologies) conferences and the industries is surprisingly low — twenty percent (20%) of all the workers in the ICT industry, and only five percent who speak at ICT conferences!

To encourage women to participate in and become visible in the ICT scene, Ms Taïssa Charlier launched “Women in Digital Switzerland” (WDS, hereafter), a group created in LinkedIn in January 2014. Starting with about 20 people in the group, WSD had grown to host 200 members in a few months! These members came to know WSD only via word of the mouth.

Need to push forward more opinions from women

Taïssa is a young and dynamic professional of digital marketing. The original reason that made her to stand up to unite women via WDS was a prohibitively high cost of the kindergarten in Switzerland. Being a single mother, she needs a kindergarten to keep her child while she works in daytime. She soon found that the fee for the kindergarten is almost the same as her monthly salary. “Women can’t work outside home! We must make the opinions of women heard in society”, she thought.

Taïssa soon realised that women are heavily under represented in the ICT industry, despite an increasing number of professional women in the industry. “Something must be done”, she thought. Her answer was to create a system on the network for women to inspire and to be inspired, to be connected with peers, to share best practices and, thus, to increase their visibility and presence profession.

Mutual support by information exchange and discussion

WDS rightly hit the needs of professional women, who have been scattered around and rather isolated in digital profession in Switzerland.

Taïssa said, “I wish WSD to grow starting from the information exchange to become a platform for women to inspire each other. I wish WSD become a media to empower women in the future.”

The language of WSD is English. Taïssa, though she is a Franco phone herself, decided to use English as the language of the group so that women in other language groups of Switzerland may join and exchange information across the different language zones in the country.

“It’s my giving back project”

For Taïssa, having a large number of participants is not a major purpose of the WSD. “I wish to give back to those wonderful people I met by providing WSD for women to meet wonderful people.”

She further went on to say that fully utilising women’s talent is a part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for companies. Giving opportunities to women and grow them is a contribution to the society.

The author has come to know a workingwomen’s network launched based on a similar idea in Japan. The social media helps you to be connected with like-minded people even though you find none around. With the policy of the Prime Minister Abe to utilise women for the economic development of Japan, networks of professional women’s mutual support based on the social media will grow.

THE ARTICLE POSTED ABOVE IS A SUMMARY. The original article is in Japanese and published in “Akebono”, a monthly journal in Japan, in June 2014. Ten thousand copies are issued every month.

Europe-Japan Dynamics on the JETRO Switzerland Newsletter

JETRO Geneva, a branch of Japan External Trade Organization issues monthly Newsletter. The feature article for its November issue is Europe-Japan Dynamics.

“Consultancy services doe cross cultural Management

Yoshiko Kurisaki has started a consultancy business ‘Europe-Japan Dynamics’ to help Swiss and European companies for cross-cultural management with Japan.

25 years in Europe

Business manners in Japan

Services for Swiss and Japanese companies”

JETRO (日本貿易振興機構）のジュネーブオフィスでは、毎月ニュースレターを発行し｢英語）、スイスの日本企業や、日本経済の動向などを伝えています。11月号の、企業紹介に（1ページ目）、ヨーロッパ　ジャパン　ダイナミクスが紹介されました。

Lessons learnt by Swiss business people – Hidden gaps in business with Japan (7)

Do you know an invisible trap in doing business with Japan?

In appearance, Japan is not different from Europe; modern buildings, fancy cars and people dressed like Europeans. In reality at work, however, the country is very different.

What have Swiss business people learnt from their experience with Japan? Europe-Japan Dynamics interviewed fourteen (14) Swiss business people who had the first-hand business experience with the country.

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Overall, all the people interviewed like the Japanese as business partners and in a personal relationship. All think the Japanese reliable, polite, engaged and respectful to others. Many experts appreciated a long-term approach taken by the Japanese as this attitude creates better values in business.

That said, all the experts said that communication and a long time needed in decision-making had been considerably large challenges. Challenges in communication go beyond language issues. Even though both Swiss and Japanese speak good English, Swiss business people were puzzled by the Japanese reaction, as typically expressed by one manager, “I was often not sure if my Japanese business partners understood me.” It often takes a few years for Swiss people to understand how to interpret the Japanese “Yes” in the Japanese business cultural context.

"Ringi sho" - An important process in Japanese decision-making — “Ringi sho” – An important process in Japanese decision-making

A Japanese way of decision-making is another big challenge. The Japanese spend a long time in Swiss standard to reach a conclusion, and it is difficult for the Swiss to find who the decision-maker is.

Swiss business people see a good point in the Japanese decision-making, though. “The strength of Japan is that once agreed, the decision is firm and all the people work exactly as decided”, one interviewee said.

Despite these challenges, many Swiss companies are running successful business with Japan. They have learned through experience many clues for success. For example, it is important to ensure mutual understanding by asking questions step by step, and follow up on important matters. Soft and informal communication is “Must”. Some went out for a drink after work to discuss business matters with his Japanese clients. Or, some other played golf with Japanese business partners in weekends. Yet other visited museums or travelled outside Tokyo in weekends to better understand the country.

The study found that the common success factors are; to respect and accept different values, as one interviewee said, “Japan has its own way of doing things”, to be extremely patient, and to build the mutual trust before pushing business. The interviewees emphasised large advantages of doing business in the Japanese language, or at least, to work with a Japanese person who knows business. The centre of the matter is business culture, more than a language. Understanding the culture and value-set embedded in business is critical, even though it is not as visible as other concrete business matters as finance, products, R&D, or sales & marketing.

Last but not the least, human resource factors are far from negligible. Having a cultural competence is essential to do business with Japan. Underestimating the importance of cultural management in business may cost much.

About the study — From April to July 2014, Europe-Japan Dynamics interviewed fourteen (14) Swiss business people who had first hand experience with Japan. Their industries varied, including legal, financial and human resource services, pharmaceutical, academic and luxury goods sectors. The author is very thankful to the 14 people who were willing to spare time and thoughts for the study.

For a free copy of the synthesis or consultation on your business issues with Japan, please call or write to —

Yoshiko KURISAKI (Ms), Director, Europe-Japan Dynamics

Tel. +41 (0) 76 411 6076, E-mail yoshiko.kurisaki@gmail.com

Japanese perfectionism in luggage handling — Hidden gaps in business between Europe and Japan (6)

Ten hotels in a tag and delivery without mistake

The Japanese Art is the finest in the world and so is the service, including luggage handling by the airport limousine.

Arriving from Europe at Narita International Airport, Susan was surprised at the tag attached to her luggage at the bus stop of the airport limousine. It was her first business travel to Japan. (The luggage may look funny but it’s for her business travel.) A man at the stop asked her hotel, and marked a green circle on the name printed to the tag. On the tag, the names of the ten hotels are neatly listed and printed (see photo). These are the hotels at which the bus will stop by along the way in downtown Tokyo.

When the bus arrived at the hotel, Susan’s luggage was taken out without mistake. If it were some other countries, which may include some in Europe, Susan would have had to keep her eyes on her luggage to make sure that it would be taken off at the right hotel. In Japan, Susan had nothing to worry about.

It may be a small experience but gave a strong impression to Susan to understand how much attention is paid to the detail and the Japanese standard of the perfect service.

“Why does my customer put me in copy, though it’s not my job?” — Hidden gaps in business between Europe and Japan (5)

It is said that the Japanese works in a group. What does that mean to you? There is always a risk to take a simple statement on one culture such as this word by word. The statement could help you if you interpret it in each case you may encounter. A simple statement may not help if you interpret it in your own cultural context alone. Nancy recently had an experience to understand what “the Japanese works in a group” could mean to her.

Nancy works for a large travel agency in Switzerland. She is in charge of business travels of large accounts. Her company has travel, and event & entertainment logistic departments. Nancy belongs to the travel department.

One day, she asked me, “Yoshiko, why does my Japanese customer always put me in copy of his messages for the subject which I’m not involved in? I know him well as I take care of his business travels, but this is too much. ” “What happened, Nancy?” “He asked me a few months ago if my company could organise an important event for his company. I introduced my colleague, Ingrid, who works for the event & entertainment department. Mr. Suzuki, my customer, and Ingrid started discussion on the event. That is fine. My problem is that he always puts me in copy of his e-mails! I don’t need to be informed on the ongoing discussions. It’s Ingrid who is in charge of the event logistics, not me. I can’t help him.”

I’d understand why Mr. Suzuki always puts Nancy in copy. He trusts Nancy as she has been helpful for him, whereas Ingrid is new to him. He most probably thinks that Nancy should be in the communication loop on his discussions with Ingrid. In his eyes, Nancy introduced Ingrid to him. Therefore if he gets some problem in organizing the event logistics, he’d ask Nancy to help.

Mr. Suzuki’s behavior is popular in Japan. People share tasks in the workplace in Japan. Each person has his/her assignment but the boundaries of responsibilities are not always clear-cut. People work by sharing responsibilities. The decision-making is largely based on consensus, rather than on decision by one person who is delegated some levels of responsibility. Under such circumstances, it is not unusual that four or five or even more people are in copy of e-mails exchanged on one subject. If someone is missed out from the loop, he/she would be upset. People are comfortable to be kept in copy, even though the subject matter may be only marginally relevant to them.

In such a work culture, it is safe to keep all the people informed, even some may only be remotely involved. For Nancy, it is on the contrary. Boundaries of responsibilities are clear in Europe, or at least clearer than Japan. In her eyes, the event support for Mr. Suzuki is solely under responsibility of Ingrid. Nancy does not need to know what’s going on with it or can’t help Mr. Suzuki in her position.

That said, Nancy’s emotional intelligence tells her that Mr. Suzuki wants to keep her in copy. “It’s OK”, she thought. She just let the e-mail exchange going without stepping in the discussion.

A few months later, Nancy went to the airport to see-off Mr. Suzuki, who was leaving Switzerland to assume a new position back in Tokyo. Being a travel agent, Nancy usually doesn’t do the same for other customers. When I asked why she did it, Nancy said, “When Mr. Suzuki had advised me that he was going back to Japan, I read his mind. He wanted me to say ‘Thank you and good bye’ at the airport. He was a good customer, so I thought it’s OK, I’ll do. ” Nancy well assessed her customer’s mind-set! Assessing what’s in other person’s mind is very important in communication with the Japanese.

Japanese eyes in Europe (1) — Geisha?!

I’m Japanese and live in Europe for 20+ years. Throughout these years, I worked in an international environment, in business, volunteer activities and off-time.

I sometimes feel Europe and Japan are far from each other. Not only due to the geographical distance, but more importantly people on both sides don’t know each other very well yet, at least. Yes, we have the Internet, Wikipedia, we travel over the globe, but still … something is missing.

I am lucky to have trained eyes to see Europe from Japanese eyes and Japan from European ones. My multifunctional eyes are well trained through variety of experiences piled up day by day in the past over twenty years.

Europe is full of interesting, sometimes funny, interfaces with Japan.

Why don’t I share with you, who are as curious as I am, these interesting topics caught by my Japanese eyes in Europe?

Please enjoy!

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I am a great fan of the municipal library of City of Geneva. The library provides luxury space for endless intellectual interests with quiet study rooms equipped with free wifi. It well represents Swiss devotion to the cultural support for citizens.

That said, I was shocked this week when I opened a booklet prepared by the library. The booklet lists a number of books and DVDs to suggest for future travelers to the countries of Asia and Oceania. The information is well sorted out per country, starting from A — Afghanistan.

For the cover page of the section of Japan, three photos are placed; “Geisha”, “Tokyo by night” and “Mount Fuji” (see the photo below).

What? Geisha and Mount Fuji? Do they represent Japan?

OK for “Tokyo by night”. Central areas of Tokyo looks like the photo, but I have reservation for the rest of the two.

Mount Fuji was listed as the World Heritage by UNESCO in 2013. In this sense, one can say that a beautiful view of the mountain may symbolizes Japan. The photograph used for the booklet, however, is strange. The mountain is with a temple colored in red. It is obviously an artificial image, that doesn’t exist in reality. It is an old fashioned and stereo type image of Fuji an Japan. The modern appearance of the Mount Fuji would be largely different.

What surprised me more is “Geisha”.

First of all, I’d say that the photograph looks like “Maiko”, not “Geisha”. “Maiko” is a trainee of “Geisha”, and these are two distinctly different status of women entertainers.

More importantly, “Geisha” is a product of a feudal era when women’s human rights were completely neglected. When rich men were having parties with “Geisha”, their wives stayed at home looking after children and housework.

“Geisha” women carried out difficult lives. Usually, they were “sold” by their parents when very young to the houses that keeps “Geisha”, that lease women for parties. These girls were often from poor families in rural Japan, and sold to those houses. They had to work hard as entertainers to pay back the large debt to the houses.

Knowing the history of Japanese women, I’m not comfortable to see Geisha’s photograph as a symbol of Japan. Though their status has largely been changed in the modern society, and they don’t work to pay back debts any more, majority of Japanese women are not Geisha.

Geisha and Fujiyama -- Still a stereotype of Japan? — Geisha and Fujiyama — Still a stereotype of Japan?

What I saw here is the fact that Japan is not known, even to public libraries, where plenty of knowledge is kept. There must be an extreme short of information about Japan in Europe. It’s pity because there is plenty of interesting things to know, to see and to do in Japan.

I wish to bridge between Europe and Japan. Hence I started a series of blog postings.

PS. if you’d be interested in real life of Japanese women in the modern history, I’d suggest to know a story of “The Gift from Beate”, a documentary film.