Lessons from Consulting in Japan (Part 1 of Many)

During my 8 or so years here in this island country, I spent about 6 of those years doing consulting and project work for many Japanese subsidiaries of foreign entities in and around Tokyo (called "Gaishikei"). Most of that project work was in the areas of Sarbanes Oxley, internal audit and interim financial position work, and I was actually lucky enough to do projects in a number of  offices with staff numbers ranging from just 10 people all the way up to 500 or more people. I guess it means I have been privy to a number of different working environments.

So lets take a step back here. In Japan at least, even though the name of the company might be foreign and well recognized, that in a lot of cases is the only thing foreign about the firm!!! All correspondence in the firm, all invoices to clients and bills from creditors are in Japanese (well that's at least half expected), spoken Japanese only is used by everyone except for a few members of staff at the upper levels who have to deal by email or phone with the parent company overseas, who use English when absolutely necessary!

Yugawara, Kanagawa-ken

I started my career here in the Tsukiji area of Tokyo - which is right next to one of the biggest wholesale fish markets in the world, and worked for a seafood trading company (the side benefit of this was the WORLD'S best sushi for lunch three times a week)!!. I learnt on my first day when I went to the office of the company I was to work for way back in April 2002,  that as soon as I said "Good morning" in my normal Aussie accent, all I received was blank stares. I slowed down, put on a slightly more British accent and focused on my pronunciation, and this time there was more response from the other staff members I was meeting. 

After a couple of attempts, I learnt how to say "good morning" in Japanese as well, and that started my passion for this language. I still use both English and Japanese (not perfect but not bad at all I think) on a daily basis - I love speaking in both languages.

So I guess to wrap up this post, what I wish to say to anyone who does come here on business (or pleasure for that matter) is that it goes a long way to build bridges with local people to learn just a few words in Japanese before you come - the basics might be -

Ohayou gozai masu - good morning

Konnichi wa - Hello/good afternoon

Arigatou gozai masu - Thank You

Dou Itashi mashite - You are welcome

....kudasai/onegai shimasu - .....please

By making an attempt to speak a little Japanese (no matter how little), it will show to local people that you are respecting their language, and I am sure it will help you be received that much more warmly! Cheers!