Japanese Productivity
A little while ago I was talking to a friend of mine (Congrats on your P4 btw) and he refered to the fabled Japanese efficiency. Now, there’s a funny and long story attached to this, which I promised to tell him . . . . at some future date when I wasn’t quite as busy as I was at that point.
Well, I have to hold my final presentation tomorrow, I don’t remember my lines, the powerpoint isn’t done.
Yup, now will do.
First of all: The Fabled Japanese efficiency is true.
When we take a certain slice of Japanese business you will get the highest productivity numbers outside of Taiwanese sweatshops.
It is amazing to see that a company in which noone will make a decision on his/her own will run as smoothly. This is a part of Japanese Culture btw. Responsibility is shared. Always. There is rule by consensus. Which is a lot easier to reach seeing as people here will show a lot more respect for their superiors (deserved or not) and will agree with their visions.(This is done to some extend back west aswell, I know. But not as much as this).
But, there is another face to Japanese employment. The Japanese will put their country before themselves, in situations where any “nuchtere Hollander” (sober dutchman) will say: “bugger this, time to take care of #1, the Japanese will willingly sacrifice themselves for the good of the country.
This, in turn, is repaid (to some extent) by that same country. EVERYONE works.
This is where the efficiency runs into some problems. There is only so much work. But we will spread this work out over a number of people far surpassing the number we need. This is not done in the commercial sector of course, but more in the public works. Cross-roads with traffic lights will also have people regulating traffic. Roadworks will have 6-8 people allerting passersby to the hazards. There is people with bright glowing sticks waving you away from offloading trucks. On both sides. With someone to regulate these two people.
Then there’s office jobs . . . . This is not about getting the job done. This is about being at the office for the longest hours. THIS shows commitment.
So, yes. There are very efficient Japanese people. And then there’s not so efficient Japanese people.
There is something to be said for the approach of the Japanese government on “everyone works” as it involves well . . . . everyone working. The people who would be unemployed in europe/america work for their welfare (as such a salary might be called).
There is a problem though. Seriously, would this story be any interesting if there wasn’t
Japan is among the countries with the lowest fertility rate. This adds a heavy burden of a “greying” population (people want to retire . . . not work) on this system. The Japanese government is struggling to cope with this situation, and not all of it’s efforts are succesfull (sorry for the dutch only link).
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Quote of the day:
Hypothetically
If you were in prison, and you were accosted by a large fellow
A large fellow who plans on violating you by dropping the soap and encouraging you to pick up that very soap
During said violation, would you look back at the guy to make eye contact
or keep your face forward.
What’s the etiquette there?
you forgot one other thing.
The whole economy is kinda screwed up because everyone works. It does keep it in balance though.
You will have extra people working all over the place making the bought products rediculously expensive. So in order to survive you need to both work. And that makes the circle round again
It is kinda nice to shop there though. There will never be a lack of assistants anywhere or girl helping you ride the elevator.
There is a comment I could make on the elevator comment, but since it is so obvious… I’d better not huh. The girls are too shy towards non-Japanese anyway
Or Wally, can you tell us more about girls in Japan and elevators :p
About fertility, isn’t that because somehow Japanese are always stressed, never have vacation, unless a week or so every 5 years? Also make workdays from 8 to 8, than somewhere still need to eat and get back to bed etc?