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The Importance of Cross-Cultural Competence in a Changing Market

The Importance of Cross-Cultural Competence in a Changing Market

Japan is without a doubt a fascinating country. From a business perspective, the changes to the labor market are particularly interesting as we have not only a shrinking but also a rapidly aging workforce. Let’s look at what changes that brings but also why moving forward we will require even more cross-cultural competence in order to succeed in this market. Labor Market Size In Japan, we are looking at a population of roughly 126 million people. Twenty five percent –…

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Are You Close To The Genba?

Are You Close To The Genba?

Japanese management offers a lot of principles and ideas on how to effectively manage your business. One important concept within it is the genba (現場). But what is the genba and are you close to it? What is the genba? Genba is “the actual place” or “the real place” and can be anything from the scene of a crime to the place where something is happening. In business, genba refers to the actual workplace where value creation takes place. In…

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Harnessing Cultural Diversity

Harnessing Cultural Diversity

We all know by now that diversity provides huge benefits to organizations and individuals alike. It’s been proven that diversity leads to increased innovation, better problem solving skills and better profitability. However, achieving diversity and then harnessing it are still huge challenges for a lot of organizations. Let’s look at how to achieve diversity and then how to benefit from it. Instead of a general look, we will look at it from the perspective of a foreign capital company and…

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Japanese Web Design: Why?

Japanese Web Design: Why?

Japan is known for breathtaking scenery, zen gardens, beautiful kimonos and generally very aesthetic design. However, many of us who explore Japanese websites wonder if we’ve stepped into a time machine and arrived on websites from the late 90’s. Why is it that those amazing designs from an analogue world were not successfully translated into the digital world?  We will be looking initially at technical aspects and then also at some cultural aspects as things always need to be seen…

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Are Japanese Salarymen Ready For The New Normal?

Are Japanese Salarymen Ready For The New Normal?

COVID-19 has almost overnight changed the way we work and it doesn’t look like we will be able to return to a pre-COVID19 state anytime soon. Ex-Prime Minister Abe announced in July a digitization plan to dramatically transform Japan within a year. That includes promoting teleworking, the exploration of a digital currency by the Bank of Japan and moving most administrative processes online. But is the average Japanese salary man really ready? What is a salaryman? According to Wikipedia, a…

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5 Tips on How To Interview Better

5 Tips on How To Interview Better

I joined the recruitment industry in 2012 and due to the nature of the business, I’ve had the opportunity to attend countless meetings between candidates – professionals exploring new job opportunities – and clients – companies looking to hire prospective talents. Some of these meetings have been fantastic, while during some I wanted to facepalm because of something the candidate, or more importantly the client said. Hiring is an expensive endeavor. It costs a fortune – especially in Japan –…

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My personal experience with working from home during COVID-19

My personal experience with working from home during COVID-19

I recently published an article about what we have learned by working from home. That one was more general, about how companies and people cope with the situation. This one is about my personal experience. I started gradually transitioning into working from home in early March and made the shift to working from home permanently a few weeks later. It’s been about 6 weeks for me now and here is what I learned. I was actually one of the big…

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What we have learned by “Working from Home”

What we have learned by “Working from Home”

Depending on where you are, you might be on lockdown for over a month now or just recently started. Your lockdown might be very strict with penalties and police checks or it could be more of a “please stay at home” request as it is in Japan. Either way, many of us have moved to a “work from home” set up and have had to get used to the new normal. Here in Japan, the COVID-19 outbreak was slow but…

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Jinji Ido – Japanese HR at its worst

Jinji Ido – Japanese HR at its worst

Japan is known for its life-time employment and the image that you join a company right out of college at 22 and then stay there until you retire. However, that is not true for most companies anymore (and never was for all companies to begin with) and not only do most companies not offer life-time employment anymore, almost 40% of all employees are non-permanent. That leaves at least the majority of workers who have a safe workplace, right? Wrong! Let’s…

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Cross-Cultural Differences in the Workplace

Cross-Cultural Differences in the Workplace

The other day, we took a look at the Japanese labor market from a macro perspective. Now let’s take a closer look at cross-cultural communication and Japan in particular from that standpoint. If you are planning on working in Japan or are already here, you might find some of the points below helpful. Disclaimer: the points I make are generalizations. It doesn’t apply to all Japanese just as it doesn’t apply to all people in “the West”. I’m also comparing…

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