Business culture of Japan
The business culture of Japan is itself a teacher to many business houses worldwide. Many of important sets of ideas we can learn from Japan are summarized in the following four points:
1. Best quality of goods and services
2. Accuracy regarding timelines and promises
3. High-level planning and consideration of customer convenience
4. Worker productivity and management training
The Japanese business mannerisms are known all over the world to be accurate, precise and to the point when it comes to customer delivery and service providing.
The best example to showcase this is Petrol Pumps in Japan:
1. Firstly, they have dedicated workers which help you to guide your car just in front of the pump machine.
2. They park you in front of the pump machine, and then ask you to about your choice.
3. Meanwhile they wipe your car windows and ask if you have any garbage to throw.
4. After filling the fuel tank they again have dedicated workers to help you move out of the gas station without bumping into other vehicles
5. They bow and thank you in a loud voice while you drive away from the station
This kind of emphatic and careful service can be seen not only on petrol pumps in every corner of the Japanese business area be it cafeterias, Coffee shops, Pancakes-bakery shops, or even in big malls.
Japanese have built this unique business culture based solely on customer satisfaction since ancient history that ages more than a hundred years back and these values are inherited generation by generation as we can read these facts in their history books.
Some main pillars of the unique Japanese business culture are given below that are really useful for a new aspirant foreigner who is determined to fetch a Job in Japan.
• Making effective decisions.
• Harmonizing with employment needs such as flexibility in labor costs, and acceptance of change in the company.
• Developing young professional managers with the best training
• Behave according to constantly changing societal norms.
• The Japanese apply different principles and have developed different approaches and policies to tackle each of these problems.
Japan is a more relationship-oriented culture compared to other countries, particularly when it comes to doing business. Japanese people want to know and trust someone before they do business with them. That’s why it may become difficult for a non-Japanese to start and grow his/her business in Japan since Japanese people automatically tend to trust Japanese only due to the strict and disciplined culture imbibed in them which is usually seen as lacking in any other foreigner. Relationships among Japanese people are developed through informal social gatherings and generally involve a amount of eating and drinking.
