Working in Japan
June 26, 2022
I can’t offer a definitive explanation of the differences between working for an American company compared to a Japanese company due to the fact that my current employer is multinational. A mixture of German, English, and Japanese is spoken on the job and there are more German employees than Japanese. However, I have noticed some distinct Japanese-based aspects of the company.
In the office, shoes are taken off in the genkan (玄関), a recessed platform immediately following the front door. The shoes are then swapped for slippers and placed in a cubby. This prevents tracking in dirt and grime to the rest of the building. I’ve come to see that how quickly a pair of shoes can be removed and put on is an important consideration in Japan. I can always tell when the office will have visitors because pairs of slippers will be neatly arranged by the door for each person to wear.
When arriving to the office, the expected greeting is, “ohayou gozaimasu (おはようございます),” which is just a polite way to say good morning / hello. At the end of the day, the expected farewell is, “otsukaresama deshita (お疲れ様でした),” which is actually somewhat difficult to translate into English. Literally translated, it means, “you are tired.” However, in practice it allows one to contextually say, “well done,” “thank you for your help,” “you must have done a lot,” and/or “you must be tired,” all with just a short phrase. I’ve found that Japanese actually has quite a few phrases that are similarly difficult to be concisely translated into English.
One interesting difference is that Passiv Energie expects employees to not only clean their personal workspace, but to also clean the common areas. This is contrasted to my previous office experiences where janitorial staff took care of cleaning the common areas. Each day I arrive at the office around 10 minutes early so that I have time to clean before starting my work for the day. I definitely feel a greater sense of collective responsibility working in Japan compared to working in the United States.
~ JHE
