What are the hidden rules for Japanese women in the workplace?

Women from different countries face different difficulties if they want to survive in the workplace. Such as our neighbor Japan. If you want to gain a foothold in a Japanese office, you must be familiar with the unspoken workplace rules there. The first strange thing: there is no eldest daughter in the office. Understanding the rules is the first lesson in the workplace. The first time I went to work in a Japanese company, I felt like I was back to the Chinese foreign companies in the early 1990s, and I was a little dizzy. Why? Just because the female employees of this Japanese company are young girls, most of them are in their twenties, and there are very few in their thirties. As for the Chinese-haired aunts in domestic companies who are enthusiastic about recruiting people, here is simply It's rare. Japanese female employees are often dressed fashionably and behave appropriately, without commenting on their appearance. Their youth itself is invincible and gives people a feeling of vitality. The reason why it is said to be like the foreign companies in China in the past is because at that time, many foreign companies in China had just started and had little historical accumulation. The recruitment system inevitably lacked the stability of the "iron rice bowl" for older Chinese people. Therefore, those who can be recruited are young men and women who have the capital to take risks. Therefore, early foreign companies were mostly dominated by young people in their twenties. But upon closer inspection, I found that there are some differences in this Japanese company - the women are all about the same age, while the male employees are of different ages, with blackheads, whiteheads, and flowerheads. This made me quite confused at the time - where have all the older female employees in Japan gone? Qian Xuantong said that if someone is over forty, it is considered suicide. Is this company also so radical? But Qian Lao's theory Regardless of gender... After a long time, I realized that it is a common phenomenon for female employees in Japanese companies to be young. However, the reason is of course not as scary as Mr. Qian said. It is a tradition for Japanese women to stop working after getting married and stay at home. Husband and son. When we watched the TV series "Axin" back then, we may still have the impression that before getting married, Axin spent many years learning skills in a barber shop, but after getting married, he never looked for a job. This is a bit puzzling to Chinese people. In Japan, it is a matter of course. Therefore, when they reach the age of marriage, such as twenty-six or seventeen years old, female employees will "retire honorably" one after another, and naturally they will not be seen in the office. However, this phenomenon is no longer absolute in recent years. The educational level of Japanese women has gradually improved, and quite a few female doctors and masters have left school. Under the impact of modern social trends, they are no longer willing to sit back and stay around the stove after marriage like their predecessors. After a large number of foreign companies entered Japan, they gave women after marriage more opportunities for development. Today, in some Japanese companies, female ministers and managers have begun to appear. The second wonder: The saying that men are born with advantages and only half of it is reasonable is a bit exaggerated, but it is not completely unreasonable. In most Japanese families, only men earn money outside. The concept of "dual-income" is not popular in Japan. Compared with the situation in many countries where couples work together, since the number of earners has been reduced by half, it is not surprising that when discussing wages, they have to cut it in half. Because of this, in Japanese society, the status of men is not generally high. Whether in the East or in the West, there is a tradition of "ladies first". Only in Japanese companies, if there are men and women at the elevator door, the woman will definitely press the elevator button and smile attentively, while the man will be the first to get in first, and both parties will be natural --- -Are men the most important figures in Japanese society? Therefore, anyone who says "Lady First" in Japan can basically be concluded to be a foreigner. This reversal of the order of men and women seems to be the only example I have seen in any country in the world. In fact, this inequality is also reflected in the distribution and promotion within the company. In this regard, men have a natural advantage. Male and female employees who enter the company at the same time have different salaries, with men always earning tens of thousands more. The strange thing is that Japanese women are also calm about this phenomenon. It may be that traditional thinking is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Female employees in Japanese companies mostly take on clerical jobs such as secretaries and cashiers, and rarely enter departments such as development and R&D that are the lifeblood of the company. If they want to be promoted to management, they have to put in much more effort than male employees. Chinese friends who are accustomed to the education of "equality between men and women and equal pay for equal work" may feel a little uncomfortable when they suddenly come to a Japanese company. It seems that Japan is a paradise for men. In fact, this is not necessarily the case. If you think about it, you will understand. In other countries, the burdens shared by both sexes are mostly shouldered by men in Japan, and the hard work is naturally much greater... In recent years, the Japanese government has seriously strengthened its labor force. Even if it is insufficient, we are also striving to win more women into social work.

In the past, as long as the wife was a housewife at home, hundreds of thousands of "housewife subsidies" would come naturally to her door every year. When Koizumi became Prime Minister, this policy was changed. Firstly, it saves some expenses. Secondly, it encourages women to go out of the house and work more. Perhaps this is a good solution to the labor shortage in Japanese society. The third oddity: Foreigners are saddened by the salute. In Japanese companies, "ritual" is a very important thing. This does not mean bowing and saying hello between colleagues, but refers to various ceremonies within the company. In the daily work of Japanese companies, there are many and eye-catching rituals called "rituals". Some people say that Chinese state-owned enterprises have many unique rituals. From my observation, the "rituals" of Japanese companies are so complicated, and It can be called a masterpiece. Japan is a place that places great emphasis on rituals. It is believed that through various company-centered rituals, corporate cohesion can be strengthened and the spirit of cooperation can be improved. Therefore, no matter awarding awards, celebrating the New Year, resigning and changing jobs, etc., a formal and serious "ceremony" must be held. As mentioned before, most companies in Japan have a "court ceremony" when they go to work. Everyone must participate in it. They stand together, listen to the training, applaud, and shout slogans. It is a ceremony that indicates that work is about to begin and everyone cheers up. It is a bit of a ritual. Like the flag-raising ceremony organized by our primary and secondary schools. When it's time to get off work, many companies also have "Xi Li", where employees have to stand quietly and listen to the boss's words of encouragement and thanks, or the company's corporate song. Finally, the boss says: "Thank you for your hard work, I will continue to rely on you in the future." ." The employees replied: "Please take care of me," and then they left and went home. However, once I went to visit a large Japanese company under a tree with a foreign boss, but I almost made an international joke because I was catching up with the "Xi Li". The reason is that the company's corporate song was personally approved by its founder. He probably felt very emotional thinking about the difficulties of starting a business, and the melody was very tragic. When our car entered the company, we saw its employees standing at attention listening to this "tragic" song, with the setting sun and the wind blowing in the background. Our boss was trembling all over, with goosebumps on his face, and turned around and said seriously: "It seems that we came at the wrong time. An important figure in their company may have just passed away..." Japanese companies often adopt "new employee training" The "shared accommodation" method is equivalent to the closed training in our country's football world. During the closed period, the most indispensable thing every day is various "ceremonies". No matter how big or small these "rites" are, they all have fixed procedures. Because they have received special training, employees of Japanese companies can be called "etiquette" experts. We must be well aware of some unspoken and unspoken rules in the Japanese workplace. Fourth Qi: The company where Sa is most afraid of speaking English is a multinational company. As an internationally accepted business language, English can well measure the quality of employees of multinational companies. For our company's domestic offices, the office language is English. This is not because of admiration for foreigners, but because of business needs. Japan is a developed country with a relatively high level of education. Anyone who has worked in Japan knows this. I initially had high expectations for the English proficiency of Japanese company employees. That’s because exams similar to the TOEFL are also popular in Japan, and Japanese employees working in companies can generally get high scores in the exam. When I tried the SANA questions to get started, I found that it’s really not easy. At least, I couldn't pass the exams of the Japanese engineers around me. If you are writing a plan or something, the English proficiency of Japanese engineers is also very impressive. Some people say that Japanese people's English is the most terrible in the world, but I didn't think so at the time. However, this expectation was shattered during the first company conference call. Throughout the meeting, the Japanese employees were almost silent. There is a saying that Japanese people are naturally shy to speak, and their learning is similar to my country's "dumb English". In their opinion, they would not be able to understand the content of the meeting without an interpreter. I felt something bad at the time. Could it be that listening is not valued in Japanese education? Later, I gradually discovered that although many employees in Japanese companies can write good English articles, they can neither speak nor listen! The culprit of this problem is The culprit was that it wasn’t until some Japanese employees raised concerns about my half-toned English that I realized the true nature of the problem. There were actually several Japanese employees who made comments, and they were all typical "mute English experts", which was interesting.

So, Sa patiently asked - what are my mispronunciations? They were very polite and modest at first, meaning that your English is already very good, but just a little bit behind...for example, the word Rail , your pronunciation is "Ruiou", the correct pronunciation should be "Lailu", Saying, your pronunciation is "saiying", the correct pronunciation should be "saiyinggu"... Hmm?! This kind of English is really unheard of After being dumbfounded, Sa found several American colleagues and repeated these words using my own pronunciation and the "standard pronunciation" called by Japanese colleagues. The conclusion was that the American colleagues and I were standing in the same trench, which meant that this "Chinese style" "English" is difficult to pronounce but I can still understand it, but "Japanese English" is completely incomprehensible. Only later did I realize that the problem lay in the way I learned English. Anyone who has been a student in China has probably had this experience - when learning English, you used Chinese phonetic notation, and the teacher criticized you and asked you to erase it with an eraser. The teacher will tell you that you can't practice English pronunciation that way. Unfortunately, this is the standard Japanese way of learning English. This is because before and after the Meiji Restoration in Japan, English education was emphasized and learning methods were sought across the country. The last Japanese who had fled to the United States because of a shipwreck won the bid. When this person came to the United States, he didn't know a single English letter, so he used Japanese "katakana" letters to mark the pronunciations of English words. The Japanese think this method is good. First, the pronunciation conforms to Japanese habits, and second, it does not You can learn English if you know the English alphabet. Unfortunately, there are only Japanese pronunciations in this kind of katakana letters, such as the R sound in English, which does not exist at all, and can only be replaced by LU... This tradition has finally created the sound that can only be heard among Japanese people today. "Japanese-flavored English" for communication among people. The Fifth Wonder: Drink the bottom of the coffee can. I have heard an ironic saying about Japanese companies in China - in Japanese companies, lines are used to make a grid mark on the water cans of water dispensers, and each employee can only drink one at a time. grid. This seems to be in line with the dull and detail-oriented character of the Japanese. However, drinking water in such a ration is an exaggeration. I think this is a joke by friends who are familiar with the Japanese character. If we really impose such restrictions, my company may not be able to operate. Japanese company employees usually consume the most two things in class, which are cigarettes and coffee. One of the unspoken rules in the workplace is smoking. Because you can only smoke in smoking rooms, and there are a lot of reminders that "smoking is harmful to health", some Japanese people stay away from it. Even smoking is very taboo. When Chen Zude was playing chess with Japanese chess players, he discovered that they had a habit of inserting long pieces of filter-tipped cigarettes into ashtrays. He also wondered why the Japanese were so wasteful. This is also the case for Japanese smoking in the company. In fact, this is because the Japanese believe that even filtered cigarettes can be less harmful if the smoke passes through a longer filter channel. In life, the Japanese are very afraid of death, which has nothing to do with the vicious Bushido. But coffee is different. Although it is said to be addictive, I have never heard that drinking coffee can cause cancer, so most Japanese employees enjoy it. Companies generally have coffee vending machines. As a Japanese engineer, it is quite common to consume five or six cups of coffee a day. Coffee is made with water. If you limit your drinking water, won’t that affect your business? Joking aside, if you want to subvert the Japanese economy, it’s actually very simple. All you need to do is classify coffee addicts as drug addicts. Then Japanese companies must Empty for it. As for why there are so many "tobacco controls" and "coffee controls" in Japanese companies, the reason is simple. The overtime work of Japanese white-collar workers is astonishing. Walking on Midosuji Street, which has the densest office buildings in Osaka, after nightfall, almost every company window is brightly lit. Even if you take the subway at 11 or 12 o'clock in the middle of the night, it is still bustling with people and packed with Japanese people who have just got off work. . Japan has a small territory and poor mineral resources. The only resource that can guarantee its economic status is people. Therefore, Japanese companies often maximize people's abilities through overtime work, and it is normal to assign new tasks after get off work hours. Most of this kind of overtime work does not receive overtime pay. Working twelve hours a day is not unusual for Japanese white-collar workers. It's not just one person or two people, but every company is like this. From a foreigner's perspective, this is a bit thrilling. However, the physical structure of Japanese people is not much different from other people. Therefore, under this kind of pressure, coffee and cigarettes are the best refreshing tools. Of course, when coffee and cigarettes don't matter, the danger will come. Foreigners in Japan can't help but comment that the Japanese are too tired to live.

In this regard, Sa once had a misunderstanding, thinking that Japanese white-collar workers smoke and drink coffee, while blue-collar workers are paid by the hour, so they should not have these habits when they get off work. Later, when I asked the Japanese, I found out that there are even more coffee addicts among Japan’s blue-collar workers, with many drinking more than ten cups of coffee a day. This is because Japan's blue-collar workers have high labor intensity and high risks, so they have the habit of enjoying nightlife after work to vent their stress. There are electronic arcades with gambling and all kinds of pornographic venues. It is often late at night after playing. Japanese blue-collar workers who lack sleep, such as truck drivers, in order to ensure that they do not doze off while driving, the most common way is to drink. coffee. Therefore, on Japanese roads, everyone regards big trucks as dangerous things, not only because they are big, but also because the driver may be an even more dangerous guy who relies on coffee to stay awake.