Behind the scenes

Like me, my friend Andrew Morrison has worked in Japan for more than a decade. But unlike me, he took the harder path—working in all-Japanese environments. In contrast (with the exception of one year), I’ve worked for companies where the main language is English and the culture is predominantly Western.

I thought it would be interesting to compare our two experiences and see what lessons they might have, both for missionaries ministering to Japanese professionals and for those considering “tentmaking” in Japan.

Andrew has recently returned to Australia after working for 12 years in Tokyo and Osaka, primarily in the university sector, focusing on international affairs and university administration. I have worked for about 17 years in Tokyo, first for an editing company and now for a global scientific publisher.

Here are some questions I posed to Andrew, with some comments from me.

Did you face any challenges while working in Japan?

Andrew: Absolutely. My first full-time job in Japan was quite challenging, partly due to cross-cultural differences. For example, I remember receiving a phone call and being told that I was late for a meeting even though it was still five minutes before it was due to start! Punctuality looks different in Japan and Australia.

It was sometimes difficult to know if my perceptions of people were actually true and whom I could actually trust. It’s much easier to assess people in your own culture and language.

I also had to do quite a bit of overtime in my first job. But generally speaking, I’ve tried to keep within the nine-to-five regular working hours. Of course, the expectation in Japan is that people will do overtime—even if you don’t really need to. But I think as an obvious foreigner (I’m Caucasian), I’ve been able to play the gaijin card and leave on time. I think that surprised some of my Japanese coworkers.

Generally speaking, there’s a culture of dedicating your life and giving all your time to your work in Japan, whereas there’s more of a work-life balance in Australia. That seems to be changing a bit in Japan now, which is great.

Simon: In the two jobs I’ve had in Japan, there has been no expectation to work overtime unless there was a strict deadline to meet (which there sometimes is). In fact, in my current job, overtime is actively discouraged, and we have to report our monthly working hours. That has freed me up to do many more things outside of work than if I worked in a Japanese company. It’s also easy for me to take annual leave, and most years I take two weeks off to visit family in Australia, which would be unthinkable in most Japanese companies.

Also, the culture in both companies I’ve worked in has been global. While most of my co-workers are Japanese, they generally speak English and are familiar with Western culture (many of them have lived overseas). Cross-cultural differences do sometimes crop up, but they’re usually not so challenging to navigate because of mutual knowledge of each other’s cultures.

What are the advantages of working in a Japanese environment over working in a more international and English-speaking environment?

Andrew: Overall, working with Japanese colleagues is great because they’re very dedicated to their work. They take their work seriously and take pride in it, which is really wonderful. If there’s a deadline, for example, my Japanese colleagues are usually very careful to stick to it. So there are definitely advantages to working in Japan with Japanese colleagues. But the flipside is that people expect me to be equally dedicated to my work and to take everything very seriously. There’s a bit of a difference between the Japanese and Australian mindsets towards work.

Simon: I can relate to this. My Japanese colleagues tend to be very conscientious and detail-oriented, and they take deadlines seriously. My Australian colleagues tend to be more easygoing and flexible and less fixated on details. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches.

One advantage that Andrew didn’t mention is that working in a Japanese environment immerses you in Japanese culture and language. Andrew’s spoken Japanese is much better than mine because I don’t use Japanese for work much.

What insights has your experience given you into the working life of normal Japanese people, especially Japanese Christians?

Andrew: Workers in Japan are under strong social pressure to do their jobs correctly so they don’t inconvenience others. From a very young age, people are taught not to be a burden to those around them, and this expectation is especially strong in the workplace. They really take their jobs seriously. That results in perfect products and services (or at least that’s what it seems like on the surface). But behind those outcomes is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I’ve also discovered that there’s a lot of pressure not to make mistakes. In Australia, it’s acceptable if you make a mistake, but in Japan, it’s almost unforgivable.

Missionaries in Japan should be aware of the pressure people are under when they’re working in Japan. Workers in Japan are busy, and there’s not a lot of extra time in their lives to do other things. So if you do get people serving in church on a Sunday, that’s a really wonderful thing because it basically means they’re giving up their precious spare time to do that.

Simon: I totally agree. I’ve heard stories in the media of Japanese people working so hard that their mental and physical health suffers, and sometimes they are forced to drop out of the workforce until they recover.

Do you have any thoughts on how missionaries can serve Japanese people who are working full time?

Andrew: The main thing is to pray for them because of the pressure and stress that workers are under in Japan. Because people in Japan spend so much time at work with co-workers, that’s really their ministry. So try to find out about their workplaces and work experiences, if there are particular things that you can be praying for them at work or for opportunities for them to be sharing the gospel at work. I think that encourages workers to have the mindset that, as Christians, we are meant to be sharing the gospel and being light in those places—even if it’s just being able to tell coworkers that we’re Christians.

Simon: Amen.

Do you have any advice for someone who is considering working in a Japanese environment?

Andrew: If you’re interested in doing it, then go ahead and try it. It’s such a great experience to work in a different cultural environment. And there’s such a need for more Christians in the workplace in Japan. So absolutely go and try it. But at the same time, be prepared for it to be very different and also often difficult. Go with the right expectations. Have a purpose for why you are there. One thing that God taught me was really just to pray for my coworkers. So even though I didn’t feel as if I had the opportunities to share the gospel, my purpose was to be a Christian in that workplace and to pray for my work colleagues. It might not sound like a huge thing, but I think it can really have an impact.

Simon: Again, I totally agree. Working in an all-Japanese environment is not for the fainthearted, but it will open up opportunities to witness that might be hard for missionaries to get in other ways. It will also provide firsthand experience of Japanese working culture. And it will do wonders for your Japanese.

My year of working in an all-Japanese environment was a difficult one—the hardest year of my 17 years in Japan. I learned a lot about honne (a person’s true feelings) and tatemae (the public face that they present) during that year, and I felt pressure to work late into the evenings every day. In the end, I resigned and changed jobs to work in an international workplace, which was much easier.

Working in an international environment can be a good compromise if you feel that working in a Japanese environment might be too challenging. It falls short of full immersion, but in some ways, it offers the best of both worlds—some exposure to Japanese working culture without so much pressure. It should also provide more time to do other things outside of work.