Length of the working day in Japan. Is there a holiday in Japan? Pension in Japan. Japanese corporate culture: working late, low productivity, no vacations or sick leave

About France

I was born in Russia, where I lived for 26 years. During this time I graduated from university, learned three foreign languages and managed to change seven jobs.

I moved to France in June 2016. I moved to France “for love”. France is a dream country for many of my compatriots. It is surrounded by a mass of stereotypes that do not always have the right to exist. The first thing that surprised me was appearance French women: he is more casual than elegant. And regardless of what she is wearing, the French woman always feels confident and relaxed.

About the peculiarities of working in France

In France, I work as an English teacher in language courses for French adults. Despite all the scary stories about how difficult it is to find a job in France, I found a suitable vacancy after a couple of weeks of searching - it was a vacancy for an English-speaking nanny. And to get a teaching position, I just randomly brought my resume to the company.

In France, working conditions, working hours, vacation - everything depends on the specific place of work. Classical working week is only 35 hours. Everything also depends on the type of contract. I am familiar with three: permanent, temporary and permanent “seasonal”. The contract specifies the number of paid working hours per year, conditions for taking leave and other important details.

The biggest difference was that notice of resignation must be submitted two months before leaving, rather than two weeks before leaving.

Interestingly, in France it is customary to greet acquaintances with kisses on the cheek, and the same rule applies at work. Therefore, any working day begins with kisses. Bosses are different, so in this case kisses can be replaced with a handshake. In any case, physical contact must be established. Just coming and saying “Hello” from afar will not work. A Frenchman at work always tries to be polite and remain calm. If this is your colleague, he will always say hello, shake your hand, ask how you are, and talk about the weather.

The attitude towards working time depends on the person himself, but most likely you will not see a Frenchman often late at work, especially if these extra hours are not paid. Most often, the French go home as soon as they have worked the allotted time.

IN business relations The French can be responsible and scrupulous, but often their attitude to work is quite even, without fanaticism or excess. Everyone here understands that work is part of life.

About plans

Now I only teach English language in language courses, but in the future I plan to teach other languages. I also have some ideas regarding the tourism sector.

Anastasia Pripoltseva, 22 years old, hometown - Vidnoye, Russia, reception worker

About Japan

I graduated from college with a degree in hotel management and work at a chain hotel in Kyoto at the reception desk. I am a permanent employee with a work visa valid for five years and renewable. Besides work, I regularly go to gym, I work part-time as a model, I enjoy cooking, and I study Japanese home cooking.

Since I was ten years old, I dreamed of moving to Japan. And I knew for sure that a simple tourist trip would not satisfy me. I was looking for different ways, but the chance presented itself. I visited free courses Japanese language at Moscow State University. And on the website I saw an advertisement that a Japanese company was looking for employees for a hotel chain. I came to a seminar where we were first told about the company and then had a group interview. After that, I went through two more interviews via Skype and was hired.

I came to Japan about a year ago, in September 2017. My first vivid impressions were the excellent service at Japan Airlines and the heat upon arrival in Tokyo, clean trains, lack of garbage, polite people. On the way to Kashihara, for the first time in my life I saw mountains, real bamboo thickets, rice fields and fell in love with this country.

About the peculiarities of working in Japan

The hiring process was quite stressful. The procedure was unusual and lasted a whole year. Even when I was accepted, I still had to obtain a visa, but I had a certificate from my employer, so everything went quickly.

In my position, I have to work 160 working hours a month, and every minute worked is paid. Evening and night shifts are also paid at the top. The company itself selects housing for each employee who comes from afar. Typically this is small apartment within walking distance from the place of work. The employee pays only 10,000 for renting an apartment, the rest is paid by the company. There is also a cash bonus for employees twice a year.

For employees there is a bonus for knowing Japanese. With a score above 900 on the English exam, the employee receives a bonus of 100,000 yen. After that, he can pass the interview in English and receive another 15,000 yen every month. Cash bonuses are also provided for knowledge of other languages and other qualifications.

The working day usually lasts nine hours, with an hour break. There is also a double night shift, which lasts from 15:00 to 09:00 the next day. I also worked such shifts in the first six months. If night shifts are contraindicated for you due to your health, your boss will try to accommodate you and make your working conditions easier. There are only five paid vacation days per year, and there are no sick days. If you get sick, you need to take one of five vacation days or an unpaid day off.

In our hotel the overwhelming number of employees are foreigners. And although we generally work according to Japanese rules, everyone still has their own characteristics. For example, Italians talk loudly while working, while the French often complain and protest. The typical Japanese principles of “boss - subordinate” do not work in our relationships. But he is superior to us in position, status and age, and this quite naturally forces us to give in and indulge him.

We leave work on time only if there is really no work that needs to be done here and now.At the same time, Japanese colleagues feel obliged to look as if they are up to their necks in work at any moment. Even when there is no work, they are frantically looking for something to do. The boss sometimes stays to work another five or six hours after the end of his shift. He has a job that only he can do, but he never trusts us even with small things, he works seven days a week from morning to night.

The Japanese never complain or pass their work onto others, and are always ready to help. They are patient and do not give up work, they do everything efficiently and to the end. At work, they do everything to the benefit of others and to their disadvantage, especially if it concerns a guest or client.

About plans

They say that after a year in Japan you begin to notice significant disadvantages. But on at the moment I don't want to go back to Russia. For me, life here seems simpler. The only difficulty of living in Japan is imperfect knowledge of the Japanese language. But this problem will go away over time.

Yana Bubley, 25 years old, hometown - Kyiv, Ukraine

About Denmark

I was born and lived all my life in Kyiv. I am a lawyer by training, but I have never worked in this field. My work has always been related to organization and leadership.

My husband and I moved to Denmark about a year ago because we both love to travel. The winter before last we lived in Thailand for three months. We heard about Denmark in May 2017, when my friend started processing documents for a work visa. We became interested, and already in July all our documents were ready.

We live and work in the north of Denmark. Here beautiful nature, two seas, and the nearest town from the house is four kilometers away. All of Denmark is a huge field where houses are scattered at a distance from each other. This is interesting. We liked the local architecture, cleanliness and neatness. We were also surprised that Denmark has a well-developed postal system, and people still receive paper letters, although every important letter is duplicated by email.

About the peculiarities of working in Denmark

If you do not have an EU passport, you can legally work in Denmark only as a student in the agricultural sector. These are all types of animal farms, greenhouses and fields. I work on a chicken farm, and my husband works on a cow farm. My schedule is 12 working days and two days off. I work from six in the morning until two in the afternoon. My responsibilities include collecting eggs, washing, cleaning, sorting, and working on the conveyor. You need to make sure that everything works and control the entire process.

In Denmark, in our area of work, the employer provides housing for his employees. Your conditions, schedule and salary depend on the contract. Different farms have different work schedules. There is a certain standard - 37 working hours per week, for overtime they must either be paid extra or given additional days off. Each year, 10% of the annual salary is allocated for vacation and four or five weeks are given for rest. There is also compulsory health insurance for everyone and free medicine. But taxes must also be paid on the same basis as the Danes - from 38%.

The Danes have a completely different mentality, they think differently. Therefore, in relations with management, everything depends on the employer. There are those who are adequate and respect the law, and there are those who don’t care. In general, Ukrainians are hardworking, and it happens that we are used and not paid for overtime. But my farmer is a great person, we don't have any problems.

The Danes, especially farmers, are accustomed to difficult physical work. They have no division between men's and women's work. They still don’t get sick and don’t understand what it means to be sick. For them, a temperature of minus 38 is not a problem, and they can go to work.

About plans

My contract ends in December. And if my husband’s contract is extended, then I would like to quit my job and just be a housewife here in Denmark. And if there is no work here, we are planning to move to Finland, I have always dreamed of seeing the northern lights.

Nastya Nemtsova, 23 years old, PR manager of the Chocofamily project “Rakhmet”

About the features of working in Kazakhstan

I live and work in Almaty, in the Chocofamily holding. In the company I am involved in PR - I am responsible for PR in the holding and for the promotion of individual projects of the company. I am the only PR manager, so I work on those projects that need it most. This is ours at the moment new project - mobile application"Rakhmet." In addition, there are tasks that are related to building the image of the holding as a whole, and this is also a separate work. The responsibilities of a PR manager also include communicating with journalists, publications, bloggers, organizing and holding events.

When you really want to get a job in a certain company, everything is not so difficult. The specifics of the selection stages and interviews depend on the position for which you are applying. Each employee in our company goes through at least two stages - an interview with an HR manager and a project manager. Personally, I first had to write a series of materials, and later there was an interview with an HR manager who checks whether the person fits the company’s values. And if the person is suitable, then the next stage begins - for me it was an interview with the marketing director, as well as with the project director. And the last interview was with the founder of the holding, Ramil Mukhoryapov.

If we talk about working conditions, it is worth highlighting that last year we moved to a new office, which is located in SmartPoint. SmartPoint is a hotspot for cool Internet companies; parties, meetings, and seminars constantly take place here. And when you are in this atmosphere, you have a constant motivation to create something new. We have lounges, a large kitchen, and plenty of workspaces and spaces.

The working day lasts from nine in the morning to six in the evening - nine hours, but in fact we work more. This suits everyone, because we all understand that we are moving towards a common goal. Our vacation is also standard - two weeks twice a year.

We also have our own internal motivation program. Each season, each employee is prescribed a plan for his professional and personal development. And at the end of the season, we see which employee scored the most points and reward the best. In addition, each department also has its own motivational program.

I had experience working in different companies. And there is a certain stereotype that we, Kazakhstanis, can afford to miss deadlines and be late. And indeed there are companies that allow themselves to work at such a pace. But at the same time, many companies appear that have a philosophy, a corporate culture, a certain rhythm. And this is the peculiarity of our country, we have different companies and different approaches to work.

About plans

The plans are always only for growth. Only those people who are focused on growth can take root in fast-growing companies.

There is a stereotype that Japan is a good place to work. This stereotype comes from our compatriots who work by invitation in foreign companies, where the Japanese try to adapt to the level and style of foreigners. Meanwhile, traditional working system Japan is structured in a unique way, and it is quite difficult to exist in it. That is why there are not many foreigners building a career in classic Japanese companies. Epson employee Marina Matsumoto talks about how the average office worker lives in Japan.

Tokyo. View from the 45th floor observation deck. Photo by Swe.Var (http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/swe-var/)

Dress code

Of course, the conditions depend on the specific company, but in principle the dress code in Japan is much stricter than in Russia. Failure to comply with its rules has serious consequences for the employee, including immediate dismissal.

In a traditional Japanese company, they always wear a black suit, regardless of the weather, even if it’s +40 outside. The Japanese tolerate both heat and cold calmly, as they go through a very harsh school of hardening the body in childhood. Recently released new law allowing you to wear short-sleeved shirts to work. This is due to the forced saving of electricity, in which even in extreme heat air conditioners are no longer always used in offices.

In some companies, women are not allowed to wear fitted suits - they must be completely straight. The skirt must cover the knees.

Women's accessories are also prohibited. I have a large, serious company, it is known internationally. But I work where mostly Japanese work. At my workplace I was only allowed to wear a cross - under my clothes so that it would not be visible - and a wedding ring.

Makeup should be invisible. Japanese women love to wear bright makeup, their cheeks are very rosy, and almost all of them have false eyelashes. But at work, a woman should be as unattractive as possible to men.

In some places women are only required to wear short hair, not covering the ears. Hair color must be black. If you are naturally blonde, for example, you will have to dye your hair.

Except for men long hair You cannot wear a beard or mustache. This is an unspoken rule that everyone knows. The persistent image of the Yakuza (the traditional form of organized crime in Japan) gets in the way.

Subordination

When I got a job, I signed a bunch of documents, where I assured that I would not discuss anything with clients and colleagues except work: neither the weather, nor nature. I don’t have the right to share my “personal data” at work - who is my husband, how are I doing... At home I don’t have the right to talk about my work. My work is not secret, but it is customary and stipulated in my contract.

At work they only work

On workplace They take only what they need for work: for me it’s documents and a pen. I can’t take my bag, wallet or phone; it remains at the checkpoint.

In Russia there is a favorite saying: “If you’ve done the job, walk boldly.” In the Russian workplace, the main thing is that you complete the plan for today. In Japan, no one is interested in “plans for today.” You came to work and you have to work at it.

How the Japanese slow down the work process

In Russia we all know that wages depends on the results of your work. If you work poorly, you get nothing. If you work well, you receive bonuses and promotions. I've done everything, you can leave early or ask additional task to earn more.

In Japan you pay by the hour. Almost all Japanese people take overtime. But often this results in them stretching out one task that can be completed in two hours for a week. The deadlines set by the company also do not always correspond to the level of complexity of the work. The Japanese will poke around for hours, it seems to us that they work like sleepy flies, but they think that they do the job “thoroughly”. They incredibly slow down the workflow, so it’s difficult for us to work with them.

And this, by the way, is one of the main reasons why their economy was not in the best condition. They have trapped themselves with this hourly payment system. After all, in fact, work is designed not for quality, but for the number of hours spent in the office.

Long, lengthy conversations

We all know that “brevity is the sister of talent,” but in Japan, brevity is narrow-mindedness. The Japanese cannot speak briefly and to the point. They launch into long and extensive explanations, which are aimed at ensuring that even a narrow-minded person understands what they are talking about. Meetings can last an incredible number of hours. The Japanese believe that if they talk for a long time and in excessive detail about the same thing, then they respect the interlocutor.

Stratification of society

Growing rice requires a lot of work and organization. Therefore, historically, Japan has developed a system with a very narrow specialization of labor and strict stratification of society. Everyone has their own responsibility and their place in the life and production process.

Japanese communities have always been clearly organized. For example, a samurai never prepared food for himself; he could easily have died of hunger if the peasantry had not helped him out.

As a consequence of this mentality, it is very difficult for any Japanese to accept independent decision, which is not inherent in its status. They cannot take upon themselves basic responsibility that somehow goes beyond the scope of their everyday routine. To put a comma or not to put it is a problem for half a day. Preparing basic documents is a series of endless, very slow consultations. Moreover, the mandatory nature of such consultations is amazing. If an employee nevertheless takes it upon himself to make a decision that is not based on his status, then everyone in the hierarchical chain associated with him will receive a reprimand. This is eastern despotism in action: “I am a small man, I am a simple peasant, and I should only do the work assigned to me.”

Again, everything is understandable: Japan is a small country with a large overpopulation and needs strict frameworks and rules. To survive in Japan, you need to clearly know: my border is here, and this is the border of another person, I must respect it. No one goes beyond their limits. If a Japanese man marries them, then literally will get lost.

Russia has a huge territory, vastness, and open spaces. We are not constrained. We are free. A Russian person can do whatever he wants. And the Swede, and the reaper, and the player on the pipe... - this is primarily about us, Russians!

Same as everyone else

Interestingly, in Japan you are not supposed to demonstrate your difference or superiority in mind. You can’t show your uniqueness, your specialness. This is not welcome. Everyone should be the same. From childhood, uniqueness is burned out there with a red-hot iron, so Japan will not give the world either Einstein or Mendeleev.

Famous Japanese technologies are a myth. As a rule, these are ideas that were not created by the Japanese. What they are good at is deftly picking up and improving on time. But we, on the contrary, can brilliantly create and forget...

To survive in Japanese society you must be like everyone else. In Russia, on the contrary, if you are the same as everyone else, you will get lost. New ideas are constantly needed to master and fill a large space.

Career growth

In a classic Japanese campaign, it takes a long time to build a career. Career growth depends on age, not merit. A young specialist, even a very talented one, will occupy an insignificant position, work a lot and for a low salary, because he has just arrived. Due to this organization of the work process, it is increasingly difficult for Japanese companies to compete in the international market. Yes, there is the concept of Japanese quality, but this no longer saves them, because business is conducted too much in the Japanese way.

Salary

Officially, salaries in Japan are high. But with the deduction of all taxes, which amount to almost 60%, they receive an average of a thousand dollars. Young people receive even less. At 60 years old, your salary is already a very decent amount.

Vacations and weekends

There are no holidays in Japan. Weekends are Saturday or Sunday. And depending on the company, you are entitled to a few extra days off per year. Let’s say you’re allotted 10 days, but you can’t take them all at once. They need to be broken. It happens that you need to take one day off during the week and go somewhere on business. In my campaign, I have to give a month's notice so that everyone can cooperate and replace me. In some companies these terms are even longer. Taking time away from work due to an unexpected incident is problematic.

If you are sick on Monday and are thinking of not going to work, then they will not understand you. Everyone goes to work with a fever.

Weekends may be holidays: Day of Remembrance of the Dead - Obon, in mid-August. But young specialist There is no such possibility; he will work for the first two years without extra days off.

On New Year 1-3 days are given. If they fall on Saturday-Sunday, then no one, like in Russia, will move them to Monday-Tuesday.

There is also a “golden week” in May, when several government and religious holidays. My husband worked all days, I had 3 days off.

Working day

Standard working hours are from 9 am to 7 pm. But the main thing you should keep in mind is that if it is stated that the working day is from nine, then you cannot come directly to this time. Even if you arrived at 8.45, you are considered late. You have to arrive to work at least half an hour before, some people come an hour before. It is believed that a person needs time to get into a working mood and prepare for work.

The end of the official workday does not mean you can go home. It is not customary to leave before your boss. If he is late in the office for two hours, then you are late too, and this will not be considered overtime. Your personal circumstances are your personal problems, which, as I already mentioned, according to the agreement I signed with my colleagues, are not discussed.

Informal communication

In Japan there is such a concept - “nomikai” - “drinking together”, reminiscent of a Russian corporate party. Somewhere “nomikai” takes place every day, in my campaign - twice a week. Of course, you can refuse, but they will look at you askance. Why drink? – because in Japan there is a positive attitude towards alcohol. Shintoism involves making offerings to certain gods in the form of alcohol. Japanese doctors believe that drinking alcohol every day is beneficial. Nobody talks about doses.

The Japanese don't know how to drink, and, as a rule, they get very drunk. The drink itself will not cost you anything; either your boss or the company always pays for it.

Now, in order to further encourage visiting bars with colleagues, workers are even being paid for “nomikai”. It's part of Japanese culture to work together and drink together. It turns out that you spend almost 24 hours a day, 365 days a year only with your work colleagues.

In addition to "nomikai", you need to drink with clients, with partners, with officials with whom the company is connected.

Yes, there is something similar in Russia, but it is completely incomparable to the Japanese alcoholic scale. And then in Russia the attitude towards alcohol is much more negative.

Now you can imagine the whole picture. A Japanese man leaves his house at 7 am. At work, he exists within the strict confines of his status. After the end of the official working day, he takes extra hours because he has to feed his family. He then goes out drinking with colleagues and returns home from there at 2 a.m., most likely drunk. He works on Saturdays. Sees his family only on Sundays. Moreover, until the evening, he can either sleep or drink all day off, because he is under terrible stress from such a cruel regime.

In Japan there is separate concept- “death from overwork.” This is a very common case when people die at their desks or, unable to withstand the workload, commit suicide. For Japan, this is par for the course, an event to which there is practically no reaction. People will even be outraged if someone's suicide interferes with their work. Everyone thinks: “Why didn’t you do this somewhere in a quiet, inconspicuous place, because of you I won’t come to work on time!!”

We must understand that Japanese society did not sit and invent these rules for itself. Everything has evolved over the centuries due to the geographical and historical uniqueness of Japan. Probably everyone will agree that they had good reasons for such a mobilization of society, constant readiness for something. A small territory, many people, wars, earthquakes, tsunamis - everything can collapse at any moment. Therefore, from childhood, the Japanese learn to work in a group, learn to survive on their piece of land. In essence, all Japanese education is not built on teaching a person something, developing him, it teaches him to be a real Japanese, to be competitive in Japanese society... Not everyone can endure such a life, because it is really hard.

At the moment I I'm in Thailand, and people, having learned that we came from Japan, begin to complain that we left this country completely in vain, that their friends live happily in Japan and earn tens of thousands of dollars a month through honest labor, thus reducing their living capital.

I won’t argue, Japan is a very convenient country in some ways, and a beautiful country in others, and quite someone can live in Japan absolutely happily, and for some it is even their favorite country.

But I know one thing for sure. It's not easy to make money in Japan. This can only be done with hard work, and even then they won’t pay much.

As I already wrote, immediately upon arriving in Japan, I rushed to look for work, and soon successfully found a job in a Japanese factory for the production of set lunches - bento.
It was an Arubaite job - that is, not full time, but from 9:00 to 16:00, and not necessarily every day. Payment for the number of hours worked is very modest: 800 yen/hour.

During the interview we discussed how many days I would work. I insisted on six (no days off at all, and that’s what I wanted), but the manager said I would work five days a week.

I was immediately given a work suit that resembled a spacesuit.

In the morning, in the locker room, I changed my clothes to a completely white work suit: white pants with shoe covers, a jacket with a roll-up collar that covers the entire neck, a hair band, a hair net on top of the headband, and a hood over the eyebrow on top of the net. The shift attendant checked that not a single hair had escaped from under the hats, we cleaned the top of the suit with adhesive tape, rinsed our hands with alcohol, put on white slippers and went into the workshop.

The room was 8 degrees Celsius and there was a lot of ultraviolet lamps. Eight degrees began to be felt immediately; in fact, working with food in Japan is working in a refrigerator. The white cotton suit didn't help much.
They put medical masks on their faces, rubber gloves on their hands, and stood behind the conveyor belt.
The essence of the work: a box with indentations travels along the conveyor; each worker puts a piece of carrot, mushroom, cutlet, rice into the box, each to his own. At the end of the conveyor belt, ready-assembled lunch boxes leave.
At first, I was given the responsibility of placing carrot pieces, whereas professionals would place two to four items into the slots at a time.
The tape moved very quickly in front of my eyes, after 15 minutes I began to feel sick. Soon the type of lunch changed, and now I got mushrooms. All shift activities were performed by Japanese grannies running. The tape started moving again at an eerie pace.

I don’t remember how I waited until the end of the working day. On the second day I couldn't go to work. My whole body ached. The ultraviolet radiation hurt my eyes. Fortunately, it was possible to refuse.
A day later, I went to work again, and the next day I rested again. As a result, I went to the factory twice a week with half-hearted grief.
And that's it heroic act. Many foreigners, and sometimes Japanese, could not stand the first hour and left.

All monotonous work was done while standing. There was a lunch break - exactly half an hour, including changing clothes. During work there was not a second of free time, no one sat down to rest, no one went to the toilet, this was not welcomed.

Almost any work in Japan, except office work, is done while standing. Cashiers, salespeople, and factory workers spend all day on their feet. Often, on the way to work, I saw a woman standing behind the counter through the large glass window of an expensive store, and I never saw any customers in that store. When, later, I myself started working in a Russian souvenir store, I also had to stand all day, and at that moment, when there was no work and no customers, I just stood idle until the working day was over.
Work at the factory was much harder.

Every working day, for the entire shift, I looked at the wall opposite with the clock, and when the hand finally crawled to four, often the work was not finished, and I had to stay longer. It happened that work ended at four, but the shift had a choice: work more or go home. Most often, the shift (Japanese grannies) decided to stay and work part-time, which means everyone from the group had to stay!

The most amazing thing is that the leaders of our shift were elderly, lively Japanese old ladies and young, cheerful women from Thailand and the Philippines! The Japanese are hard workers in life, but residents of hot countries usually have a lazy lifestyle.

I don’t know, maybe if I worked in a factory for years like they did, maybe I would get used to it. But soon I managed to find a better job in a gift shop, it was a salvation.


An Epson employee says. There is a stereotype that Japan is a good place to work. This stereotype comes from our compatriots who work by invitation in foreign companies, where the Japanese try to adapt to the level and style of foreigners. Meanwhile, the traditional Japanese work system is structured in a unique way, and it is quite difficult to exist in it. That is why there are not many foreigners building a career in classic Japanese companies. Epson employee Marina Matsumoto talks about how the average office worker lives in Japan.

Dress code

In a traditional Japanese company, they always wear a black suit, regardless of the weather, even if it’s +40 outside. The Japanese tolerate both heat and cold calmly, as they go through a very harsh school of hardening the body in childhood. Recently a new law was passed allowing people to wear short-sleeved shirts to work. This is due to the forced saving of electricity, in which even in extreme heat air conditioners are no longer always used in offices.

In some companies, women are not allowed to wear fitted suits - they must be completely straight. The skirt must cover the knees.

In some places, women must only wear short hair that does not cover their ears. Hair color must be black. If you are naturally blonde, for example, you will have to dye your hair.

In addition to long hair, men are not allowed to wear a beard or mustache. This is an unspoken rule that everyone knows. The persistent image of the Yakuza (the traditional form of organized crime in Japan) gets in the way.

Subordination

At work they only work

They only take to the workplace what they need for work: for me, these are documents and a pen. I can’t take my bag, wallet or phone; it remains at the checkpoint.

How the Japanese slow down the work process

In Russia, we all know that your salary depends on the results of your work. If you work poorly, you get nothing. If you work well, you receive bonuses and promotions. You’ve done everything, you can leave early or ask for an additional task to earn more.

Long, lengthy conversations

Stratification of society

Japanese communities have always been clearly organized. For example, a samurai never prepared food for himself; he could easily have died of hunger if the peasantry had not helped him out.

As a consequence of this mentality, it is very difficult for any Japanese to make an independent decision that is not inherent in his status. They cannot take upon themselves basic responsibility that somehow goes beyond the scope of their everyday routine. To put a comma or not to put it is a problem for half a day. Preparing basic documents is a series of endless, very slow consultations. Moreover, the mandatory nature of such consultations is amazing. If an employee nevertheless takes it upon himself to make a decision that is not based on his status, then everyone in the hierarchical chain associated with him will receive a reprimand. This is eastern despotism in action: “I am a small man, I am a simple peasant, and I should only do the work assigned to me.”

Same as everyone else

Career growth.

In a classic Japanese campaign, it takes a long time to build a career. Career advancement depends on age, not merit. A young specialist, even a very talented one, will occupy an insignificant position, work a lot and for a low salary, because he has just arrived. Due to this organization of the work process, it is increasingly difficult for Japanese companies to compete in the international market. Yes, there is the concept of Japanese quality, but this no longer saves them, because business is conducted too much in the Japanese way.

Salary

Vacations and weekends

If you are sick on Monday and are thinking of not going to work, then they will not understand you. Everyone goes to work with a fever.

Weekends may include holidays: Remembrance Day - Obon, in mid-August. But a young specialist does not have such an opportunity; he will work for the first two years without extra days off.

For the New Year, 1-3 days are given. If they fall on Saturday-Sunday, then no one, like in Russia, will move them to Monday-Tuesday.

There is also a “golden week” in May, when several public and religious holidays occur in a row. My husband worked all days, I had 3 days off.

Working day

Informal communication

The Japanese don't know how to drink, and, as a rule, they get very drunk. The drink itself will not cost you anything; either your boss or the company always pays for it.

In addition to "nomikai", you need to drink with clients, with partners, with officials with whom the company is connected.

Yes, there is something similar in Russia, but it is completely incomparable to the Japanese alcoholic scale. And then in Russia the attitude towards alcohol is much more negative.

In Japan there is a separate concept - “death from overwork.” This is a very common case when people die at their desks or, unable to withstand the workload, commit suicide. For Japan, this is par for the course, an event to which there is practically no reaction. People will even be outraged if someone's suicide interferes with their work. Everyone thinks: “Why didn’t you do this somewhere in a quiet, inconspicuous place, because of you I won’t come to work on time!!”

But I know one thing for sure. It's not easy to make money in Japan. This can only be done with hard work, and even then they won’t pay much.

Like me, immediately upon arriving in Japan, I rushed to look for work, and soon successfully found a job in a Japanese factory producing set lunches - bento.
It was an Arubaite job - that is, not full time, but from 9:00 to 16:00, and not necessarily every day. Payment for the number of hours worked is very modest: 800 yen/hour.

During the interview we discussed how many days I would work. I insisted on six (no days off at all, and that’s what I wanted), but the manager said I would work five days a week.

I was immediately given a work suit that resembled a spacesuit.

The room was 8 degrees Celsius and there were a lot of ultraviolet lamps. Eight degrees began to be felt immediately; in fact, working with food in Japan is working in a refrigerator. The white cotton suit didn't help much.
They put medical masks on their faces, rubber gloves on their hands, and stood behind the conveyor belt.
The essence of the work: a box with indentations travels along the conveyor; each worker puts a piece of carrot, mushroom, cutlet, rice into the box, each to his own. At the end of the conveyor belt, ready-assembled lunch boxes leave.
At first, I was given the responsibility of placing carrot pieces, whereas professionals would place two to four items into the slots at a time.
The tape moved very quickly in front of my eyes, after 15 minutes I began to feel sick. Soon the type of lunch changed, and now I got mushrooms. All shift activities were performed by Japanese grannies running. The tape started moving again at an eerie pace.

I don’t remember how I waited until the end of the working day. On the second day I couldn't go to work. My whole body ached. The ultraviolet radiation hurt my eyes. Fortunately, it was possible to refuse.
A day later, I went to work again, and the next day I rested again. As a result, I went to the factory twice a week with half-hearted grief.
And this is still a heroic act. Many foreigners, and sometimes Japanese, could not stand the first hour and left.

I don’t know, maybe if I worked in a factory for years like they did, maybe I would get used to it. But soon I managed to find a better job in , it was a salvation.