cooperCollins

Rochelle,

Thanks for your answers. I am actually working in Japan and have been for the past 6-years in a technology-based industry. I've worked in large and small companies here in Tokyo.

There are definitely forward-thinkers in the workplace, but for various reasons, many of them do not get a chance to really spread their wings and elevate departments or companies. For the most part, in my experience, workers' skills are average or sub-par compared to where I'm originally from. When I first planned on working in Japan, I had a vision of extremely advanced workflows and techniques which very smart people had developed. Although I've seen some interesting stuff, for the most part, I'm disappointed.

And yes, the people nodding-off in the middle of the day gets a bit frustrating... but I guess that is still a part of the traditional work culture that hasn't changed much.

Dentsu, yes, sorry, I mixed it up with Rakuten. Yes, from what I've read, there were some official rules concerning overtime that are in place, but there just were no checks to see if they were being followed. I have also seen this kind of thing occur, but not to the extent of the Dentsu worker. I have an American friend, however, who witnessed something very similar to the Dentsu worker's situation (the worker was working 7-days a week, at least 15-hours per-day, for months... he looked very unhealthy) and actually spoke to the worker's supervisor about it. What my friend received in return from the supervisor was nothing short of malicious, systematic sabotage for months thereafter. To make a long story short, the supervisor tried getting my friend fired by sabotaging his work, involving various kouhai to do the dirty work, and then presenting the sabotaged materials to the president of the company. Lawyers became involved and my friend won. Apparently, this type of bullying is not as rare as one would hope in the Japanese workplace, especially in larger companies. Japanese work culture is extremely complex and is perhaps why nothing was said about the unfortunate Denstu worker.

The typical meeting hell. They do love them some meetings in Japan.

Any-sized company can be considered "black". If they have a reputation of mistreating employees (harassment, late/failure to pay, bad working conditions, etc.), they will be at the very least considered Black amongst those in the same industry.

Hi, Rochelle, thanks for fielding our questions -- you seem to have a lot of experience in dealing with business in Japan.

Just a couple of questions here:

• What are your thoughts on Japanese business' ability to keep up with global technology? (I guess that was more a question of workers, rather than companies). Do you think they are on-par with global tech standards or are even leading the way?

• Has the Japanese workforce's work ethic changed since you started your consultations in 1994? Has the traditional expectations put upon staff to stay as late as the boss, for example, loosened up since the 90's?

• What are your thoughts on the recent Rakuten employee who committed suicide from apparent over-work?

Thanks again for your candid thoughts!