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Hey you, foreigner! Want to Survive the Salaryman Journey?
Fitting in a Japanese office means knowing the right words.
Knowing the right words can so increase our chances of success in a new job in Japan. Understanding the words, one understands the culture. One will know how things operate and ways to keep one’s colleagues happy.
To offer four examples of when it could benefit you from knowing these words, four recent moments come to mind:
Shuhari: When at Sony’s HQ in Tokyo’s Shinagawa neighborhood, a Sony friend was describing Sony’s learning-by-doing method. As he explained, Sony improved the existing tech of the transistor (shu), invented the walkman (ha), and made a new market category (ri). See description below.
Anego +Nemawashi: A new employee at an industrial company in Fukuoka found a kind older sister-type colleague (anego) who coached her through the process of building consensus in the company (nemawashi).
Kenshū: In Osaka, a friend said that workplace relationships sometimes can get tense until his company holds a company-sponsored party or outing (kenshū).
Uchiage: Working under intense stress before a Ministerial-level visit to Tokyo, a Japanese government counterpart said that “we all really need that uchiage after this is all over!”
