A legal restriction on the use of electricity has been just imposed in eastern Japan

Yesterday, on the 1st of July, the government imposed a legal restriction on the use of electricity in eastern Japan where almost all the power plants were seriously damaged by the 3/11earthquake and tsunami. The legal restriction was the first since the 1973 oil shock. Because these power plants haven't fully recovered yet, companies which use more than a certain amount of electricity are officially required to reduce electricity consumption by 15%. If they fail to meet the requirement, they will have to pay a fine. Other than those companies, no obligations have been imposed but everyone is strongly advised to cut electricity consumption by 15%. Since small companies and households consume about two-thirds of the total electricity used in the area, their efforts are also a key to avoiding sudden blackouts due to over capacity.

In eastern Japan, great efforts to cut electricity consumption have been constantly made since the 3/11 earthquake. Because of this, the restriction requires everybody to make further efforts in order to get through summer. In shopping malls, more lights than ever are off to keep air conditioning on. Although I'm already used to the dimness, to be honest, I was a little surprised by the darkness when I stopped by a shopping mall today.

Actually, to avoid sudden major power outages, it's also important to level electricity consumption. From this viewpoint, operations in some factories have been shifted mainly to night. Automobile industry announced about a month ago that their days off would be shifted form Saturdays and Sundays to Thursdays and Fridays, and then the shift was implemented the day before yesterday. The industry is so huge and has such a great influence on a lot of companies that it's expected that the shift will be effective in the leveling of electricity usage. On the other hand, a lot of workers who have days off on weekends and have to do with the industry can be forced to work during their days off. Some of my friends who are managers say in a resigned voice that the shift will surely deprive them of their days off. Since managers are usually not labor union members, they are often required to cover extra duties on special occasions. My friends complain that when they were young, they were forced to work long hours without fully getting overtime payment because of the Japanese working culture. Now that they are managers, they are required to work harder to cover duties of younger workers who are protected by their labor unions since companies are required to comply with the law more strictly than when they were young. Although they find it unreasonable, they tend to bow to the inevitable since it's very difficult for them to find a better working environment.

Anyway, in both April and May, I succeeded in reducing electricity consumption at home by 33% compared to the same month last year. I've realized how much I'd waste electricity.

Posters -Saving power-http://setsuden.tumblr.com/

This is the TEPCO electricity forecast, which I check:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/forecast/html/index-e.html

The Facebook headquarters reminds me of the old days

The civil disobedience in Egypt finally forced President Mubarak to step down. The revolt opened the door to democracy.Since Facebook played a remarkable role in making it happen, more Japanese people, especially those who are unfamiliar with Facebook, started paying attention to it, wondering what it was like. Under these circumstances, a TV news program allocated some time to introduce it, the popular social network service in the world. In the program, a popular Japanese reporter went to the headquarters of Facebook in California, gave a tour of the office, and interviewed the creator of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg. According to the program, this was the the first time that a Japanese TV program was allowed to film inside the office. Given that Facebook has been struggling to gain Japanese subscribers due to the immense popularity of the Japanese social network service "Mixi," I suppose that Facebook views the present time as a good opportunity to promote itself.

Anyway, it was reported in the program that Facebook had decided against office partitions in the hopes that workers would feel free to discuss ideas openly. The placement of office desks like the one in the attached picture and other reports about the office reminded me of when I just started working for a traditional company many years ago right after graduation. At the time, office partitions weren't common in Japan and office desks were arranged that way in many Japanese companies, although they now use partitions. So, I was working in a sort of open office space. On top of that, I was encouraged to feel free to have discussion with co-workers, even at cafes, etc. The open office space and small talk with coworkers often helped me come up with new ideas, although when I wanted to focus my full attention on doing something, I felt like the openness caused me to be distracted. I was a little surprised to see things in common between Facebook and a traditional Japanese company.

Awkward working culture in Japan

I often hear Westerners saying that they don't understand why Japanese businessmen often brag about their long working hours. They say that in the West, such workers are perceived to be inefficient. Because of this, if Westerners are forced to work long hours, they will likely complain and will never brag about it. What is most surprising to Westerners seems to be that immediately before a client presentation, some Japanese businessmen tend to mention that they had only a few hours of sleep the previous night. Their intention is to impress their clients by the great efforts they had put in right up to the last minute. However, contrary to their expectations, this will make Westerners wonder if they will be able to deliver presentations properly since Westerners assume that a lack of sleep would impair their judgement and ability to concentrate.

I think that mentioning a lack of sleep or things like this to clients is ridiculous even to Japanese people these days, although it didn't give negative impressions to clients in the past. Several years ago, I heard a story. An older manager and a few workers from a company went to Tokyo from Osaka to deliver a presentation to their client. Before the presentation, in order to break the ice, the manager told the client that the workers had been re-checking the presentation even on the way to Tokyo by bullet train (it takes two and half hours between the two cities). The client's reaction astonished and disappointed the manager. The client criticized him, saying that he was so incompetent at managing his workers that they were forced to check the presentation even on a bullet train. I totally agree with the client.

Culturally, people who are willing to work late still tend to be appreciated in Japanese companies. In the past, some workers would stay until very late at work even when they didn't need to and overtime wasn't paid. As the times have changed, working efficiently has become of greater value. However, I've found that even efficient workers are often required to work long hours. In Japan, at work, you are often required to work cooperatively with your colleagues. Actually, teamwork is considered a Japanese advantage. However, the idea requires you to cover what your colleagues haven't yet done in your team. If you can work much more efficiently than your team members, you will end up being forced to help them and might find this unreasonable. I think that this is largely because you often feel that you aren't evaluated properly and don't get a salary worthy of your performance.

Do calendars play a certain role on business? Calenders are things to be given in Japan.

There are only a few days left this year. Companies other than service ones got closed for the New Year holidays yesterday. The last business day of the year is called 仕事納め/shigoto-osame in Japan. On the day, small parties called 納会/noukai are usually held. In my experience, snacks and drinks including alcohols are served at the office. Companies will be usually be closed for business until the 3rd of January.

As I mentioned before, people traditionally give gifts to their bosses and friends etc in order to show their gratitude in December although this tradition has become less popular. Other than this tradition, right before the holidays start, workers visit their main clients to express their gratitude and give them original calendars or diaries which their companies made as promotional goods, although I've found that there is a growing tendency by companies to stop making and giving them to cut costs.

I don't know why calendars and diaries have become that popular as small gifts given in December. I guess this is because they are necessary and coveted things. On top of that, calendars are put on desks or hung on walls for a year, and diaries are used for a year, as well. In other words, they can remind people daily of companies which gave them, so they are effective promotion tools. However, the calendars and diaries will be meaningless if they aren't used. In order to capture hearts and minds, some are highly designed, and some are functional. Needless to say, company's names and telephone numbers are printed on the calendars and diaries in a way to not spoil the design of them. As for calendars, in my experience, I can find ones I like among calendars given at work. If there are some left at the office after Christmas, workers are often allowed to bring them back home if they want. Until a decade ago, banks etc would give them not only to main clients but also to individual clients such as housewives. All in all, calendars are things to be given, not to buy, for many people in Japan, although more people buy them since the number of attractive free calendars has sharply decreased due to the current recession.

I wish you all the best in 2011!

Are Christmas gifts replacing traditional gifts sent in December in Japan?

During December, in the west, people usually think of Christmas gifts when speaking of gifts. People in Japan, especially the youth and those with small children and grandchildren, think of Christmas gifts as well. However, some think of another kind of gifts called お歳暮/o-seibo. This is a Japanese tradition. In December, we give gifts to our bosses and friends etc in order to show our gratitude for their help during the year, although this tradition has recently become less popular. I'm even wondering if the tradition is fading out, but special zones for the gifts called お歳暮/o-seibo still appear in supermarkets and department stores in November.

When I was a child, this kind of gifts were sent home mainly by my father's co-workers whom he was in charge of and by his clients. I looked forward to the gifts. When I started working many years ago, my company strongly advised that its employees should refrain from sending the gifts to their bosses and co-workers since the employees wondered if the gifts helped their bosses give them a good evaluation. Because of this, I never sent the gifts to my bosses nor received them from my co-workers in my company. However, my division still received them from other companies with which my division had close relationships in business. On top of that, I was personally given the gifts by other companies etc which were involved in my projects. Although I was required to report to my boss who gave me what, I was allowed to accept the gifts since all of them were within the bounds of common sense. As far as I remember, I received a dozen beers, a few pieces of handkerchief and things like that (Please see the Note below).

At the time, in December, some workers in department stores visited companies to give advice and help them send the gifts. As the times have changed, companies are required to be more transparency. Since some of the gifts were likely to be considered a sort of bribe, companies stopped sending and receiving gifts. Although I think that there are some companies which still keep the tradition, the current recession has encouraged more companies to turn from the tradition. On top of that, the tradition is disappearing from many younger people. Instead, Christmas gifts have become more familiar with them.

Note: 

When I started working, I was a only woman in my project, although many people from various companies were involved in the project. They were not used to dealing with female co-workers. In December, some of them wanted to give me a gift as お歳暮/o-seibo. However, I guess they didn't know what kind of gift was best for me since they hadn't given the gifts called お歳暮/o-seibo to female co-workers before. After they thought through it, some gave me a big stuffed Snoopy because I told them at work that I liked Snoopy very much. Some gave me a pair of very high-quality pajamas. These surprised not only me but also my co-workers in my company. We all broke up.

I wish you a merry Christmas !!!

Cool men! イケメン/ikemen イクメン/ikumen

Have you heard of the Japanese word, イケメン/ikemen? This word was coined a decade ago and used only among the youth. In the past few years, the word has become very popular to the point where elderly people who always have difficulty catching up with new words often use the word. イケメン/ikemen means good looking men. イケ/ike comes from the slang word, イケてる/iketeru (being cool). メン/men comes from 面/men (faces) and the English word, men.

Nowadays, I often hear another new word ,イクメン/ikumen, which was coined recently and is becoming popular. イク/iku comes from 育児/ikuji (child rearing). イクメン/ikumen means men who are willing to or are active in taking care of their children. According to the news, more and more husbands, especially young ones, want to have more time to take care of their small children and spend with their children since they are wondering about a life like older generations are leading. Specifically, younger men think that it's meaningless that like older traditional men, they always work long hours and don't have time to spend with their families. A few months ago, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare launched the イクメン/ikumen project to encourage men to take paternity leave since the declining birthrate is a serious social problem in Japan.

Today, nobody is surprised to see suited businessmen holding their babies on the way to their offices in order to take them to baby-care centers. In the past decade, the idea that both a husband and wife should be involved in taking care of their children has become common. More and more young husbands don't want their wives to give up their careers, want them to bear some of the financial burdens, and are willing to share housework. Some young men believe that the great involvement of child rearing will improve themselves. It's reported that a major securities company requires all of their workers to finish their duties and leave their offices by 7p.m. so that their workers can have more time to spend with their families. As a result, the company has succeeded in boosting employee working efficiency.

However, it's still a reality that many men who want to become イクメン/ikumen are forced to work long hours or hesitate to ask their companies to take paternity leave since they feel under a great deal of peer pressure not to do that even though they have a right to do.

Career-minded women exploited by companies.

About 15 years ago, despite many women still working at traditional assistant positions without promotion potential, well-known companies would take every chance to advertise themselves by showing what a good environment and opportunities they gave their capable female employees. Since the times and the law required companies to offer career paths to more women, major companies took advantage of a tiny number of their female employees working on the same level as men in order to improve their images. Unsurprisingly, this helped companies improve their image.

Contrary to good images conveyed by companies, I would often hear various complaints and about terrible situations from these career women. When a large company was introduced as a good workplace for career-minded women in a TV program, my friend working on the same level as men in the company sighed about the introduction, saying that the information in the TV program was far from the reality. She added that she had realized her company's ulterior motive behind the advertising campaign. Sadly, it's just one example.

As for my company where I was working in a male-dominated position, it didn't try to use their female employees in order to improve its image. Rather, my company didn't pay attention to doing that. However, I was sometimes requested to deliver a speech as a part of the recruitment activity of my company.

Today, women working on the same level as men have become much more common. However, many companies still try to show what a good working environment they give their female employees and what important roles their female workers are playing in their businesses. I think that these appeals imply companies have many problems solved.

Needless to say, all of these problems aren't attributed to companies. Our economic structure that is overly dependent on working long hours and some traditional ideas are the fundamental problems.

Career women supporting male co-workers after work

As I mentioned in my previous post (click here), when I was looking for a job in male-dominated positions with career paths while I was a senior in university many years ago, assistant positions without career paths were still common for women, although the law required companies to give women the same opportunity for promotion as men. Under these circumstances, in job interviews, some companies tried to make sure if I was used to male-dominated environments. The fact that I studied at a male-dominated economics department in a male-dominated public university was  often helpful. On top of that, my frankness and relatively male-like character (男っぽい性格), which might be have been developed mostly in such a male-dominated environment, unexpectedly gave a good impression to companies.

When I was in my mid-20s, like me, many women working on the same level as men were more frank, more independent, and stronger than the average Japanese woman, even if they looked cute. Thus, these career women were less popular among Japanese men since many of them culturally wanted to catch less intelligent, dependent and adorable women. Nonetheless, these career women, including myself, would be often asked to go out for dinner and a drink after work by their male co-workers. In my experience, when male workers wanted to grumble about their jobs and their families/girlfriends, they viewed career women as the best fellows. They reckoned that career women were still women and had enough knowledge about businesses to make conversations with them exciting and constructive. When I was forced to be a listener during conversations with my male co-workers at restaurants, I felt like I was a hostess at a bar (Note 1).

Today, the situation has changed. However, independent and solid women are still playing this role. I think they are still not popular among Japanese men, although I've noticed that more and more young men like independent and solid women.

Note 1:
In Japan, there are many bars called スナック(sunakke, this word is from snack bars in English) and clubs. In these bars, women called hostess/ホステス sit beside customers whether they are men or women and talk with them. No physical contact is allowed. Some men go there just to get the hostesses to listen to their stories while drinking.

Female workers struggling with the idea that women should be かわいい/Kawaii

When women are evaluated or described, being かわいい/kawaii（cute, pretty, adorable and so on) both in appearance and in characters is highly valued in Japanese society. I would say that being かわいい/kawaii is an important element for women to attract men. Despite that, the concept of かわいい/kawaii is so ambiguous that I can't clearly define it. However, I can say that men still tend to view immature or less intelligent women to be かわいい/kawaii, although more and more young men don't do that. 

I started working at male-dominated positions with career paths immediately after graduation (It was many years ago). At the time, assistant positions without career paths were still common for women, even female university graduates, I would often be forced to struggle with the idea that women should be かわいい. The fact that some women were working on the same level as men was annoying for conservative men, although they understood that the times required it. Companies expected these women to perform better than the men. This was because companies need to convince their conservative male workers that they had made the right decision to employ these women since their conservative male workers were against hiring these women. However, the better these women performed, the more negative attention they attracted. Both male and female co-workers gossiped about them, saying that 女のくせに. I don't know how I translate the typical phrase into English, but the translation might be that you shouldn't do it because you are a woman or it's unbelievable that women do it. The phrase is used when women exhibited behaviors go against the stereotype.

Women working on the same level as men sometimes suffered from the feeling that the more highly they were appreciated at work, the less value they had as women. In fact, it was not easy for these women to find a boyfriend who appreciated and supported their careers. 

Today, more and more people, regardless of gender, keep an open mind. However, I sometime find that some men still stick with the idea that women should be かわいい/kawaii. As a matter of fact, some men don't want to work under female managers. Some male managers don't want to hire capable women because these women seem to be smarter or older than they are. I think that these attitudes are based on this idea. However, as far as I know, men who can manage capable women well and take advantage of their abilities tend to succeed.

Come to think of my first job hunting when I was a senior student

When I was writing about the recruitment of new graduates here a few days ago (click here), I thought of the old days when I was struggling with job hunting as a senior student.

First, ridiculous interview questions asked by companies such as "do you want to get married and have a child in your 20s?" came to my mind. These were not just questions to break the ice. Companies seriously asked these questions; in fact, a board member of a major corporation spent some time asking me in the final interview whether or not my parents would mind if I were transferred since I'm a only child. I had a hard time convincing him that my parents wouldn't.

When I was a senior in university, companies offered positions with career paths to male university graduates, expecting them to work many years; in contrast, companies still tended to offer traditional assistant positions without career paths to female university graduates, expecting them to support the male workers. Thus, when female university graduates applied for the male-dominated positions, they were always forced to deal with such questions since companies tried to make sure that their female candidates were suitable to the positions in every aspect.

Next, these tough circumstances reminded me of a male friend with whom I studied economics in my university. During a conversation with him, when I blurted out that I felt like I wanted to give up pursuing the male-dominated positions since I had great difficulty obtaining a job offer for the positions, he asserted that I should work on the same level as men, saying that taking an assistant job was meaningless to me. His strong words got rid of my wavering mind, making me feel like I was qualified, and encouraged me to keep struggling to obtain an offer.

After that, I imagined what my life would be like if I had accepted an offer from a company at the time. The company liked me and gave me an offer, expecting me to work in Europe five years later after joining the company. When I was a senior, I neither had an interest in English nor working abroad, and my TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) score was not good. Despite that, people of the company insisted that I was cut out for working abroad and tried to convince me that I would be able to improve my English if I took the English courses provided by the company. Although I didn't join the company, now come to think of it, the people judged me well.

Unique companies' attitudes toward new graduates in Japan

In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology announced a few weeks ago that the employment rate for new graduates of four-year universities this March was 60.7%, down 7.6 points from last year (In Japan, the school term begins in April and ends in March).  It turned out that 16.7% of the graduates had neither enrolled in graduate schools et cetera nor started working. These graduates are most likely to find themselves in a serious situation since they will have great difficulty getting a job. This is becoming a social problem.

Until a decade ago, it was common in Japan that people worked many years for the same company. Changing jobs, especially in your 20s, was frowned upon, giving the impression that you were unable to overcome and adjust to obstacles in the workplace. Because of this, recruiters focused on hiring new graduates who had great potential to contribute to the company. In fact, corporations would hire a large number of new graduates in April every year. For the first few years after they joined companies, they were trained without being expected to show a performance equivalent to their salaries.

With the introduction of Western management systems and the Japanese economic downturn, however, more and more companies have reduced the investment in their new young employees and have come to seek for people having job experience and expertise. Job changes have more common, although frequent job changes in your 20s are still disadvantageous.

However, having said that, most of the companies, especially corporations, still interview large numbers of university juniors and seniors to secure capable human resources, and then officially promise some of them that they will be hired if they can graduate. This indicates that if university seniors don't get an offer before graduation, it will be very difficult for them to obtain a stable job after graduation. Because of this, when university seniors realize that they have no chance of obtaining an offer before graduation, they tend to fail classes purposely in order to stay in university since an undergraduate status gives them more opportunity to get a stable job.

It's been said that the issue of how society will increase employment opportunities for new and young graduates without job experience is a challenge in the current recession. However, the future of Japan depends on them. I've heard that this attitude toward new graduates is unique, although South Korea seems to have a similar attitude.

In your country, how do new university graduates get a job?

Mrs Watanabe--Japanese housewives having a great influence on the foreign exchange market

As you might know, the declining birthrate is one of the big issues that Japan is facing. The public has realized that it will definitely put Japan into a serious situation. However, some of our social situations make people hesitate to have a child or more children and our government still hasn't taken effective measures against these situations. In addition, although the government requires companies to give their employees environments that encourage them to have more children, they haven't fully met the requirements. In my opinion, as long as companies keep requiring their employees, regardless of gender, to work long hours, the birthrate won't increase.  Given the fact that the workforce in Japan is shrinking, I think that companies should take advantage of capable mothers, although I know that it will compel companies to bear more cost.

Under these circumstances, capable stay-at-home mothers and housewives, many of whom were forced to quit their jobs, tend to start doing their own businesses or make extra money at home. Electronic financial transactions are particularly popular among these women since it's easy to start doing if they don't expect to make big profits. Many of them don't have a high level of expertise. Although the transaction amount with which each person deals is usually very small, the total amount is big enough to have a powerful impact especially on the foreign exchange market.

According to the news, some Western foreign exchange dealers found that transactions made by Japanese individual investors, particularly housewives, often affected the exchange rate when they examined factors for frequent dollar-buying that any technical analysis couldn't explain. Since a British newspaper referred to these Japanese housewives as Mrs. Watanabe, which is a common Japanese family names, the term "Mrs. Watanabe" has been used in Western countries. I don't know why Watanabe was chosen. I wonder if it's because a Japanese actor named Ken Watanabe is popular in Hollywood these days. Actually, I didn't know about the term until I watched a TV news program a few days ago. Have you heard of the term?