http://www.city-cost.comWed, 20 May 2026 00:49:50 +090020 years experience in Japan. running http://directionjapan.com French citizen in his forties living in Japan and almost 20 years working for foreign companies in Japan. enCopyright © 2015 - 2026 City-Cost All Rights Reserved.webmaster@city-cost.com (CC Team)http://img.city-cost.com/static/blog_campaign_icon.pnghttp://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/zDj9w-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuHow NOT to choose your country manager for JapanSo many Gaishikei are failing in Japan. Sometimes for realistic reasons (market size, product specifications, …) but most of failures are coming from very basic and simple reasons: Human resourcesPlease find below the most common mistakes of corporate headquarters when choosing their country manager for Japan.If he speaks good English he must be very good!This is often happening not only for country managers but for sales peoples, sales managers and so on…Come on! Those peoples are doing their business in Japan and while communication is important, the language only should not be a limiting factor. I saw extremely good sales peoples who had a limited command of English but still they delivered.He is a very good salesman, so he will be our perfect country manager.Many companies are promoting their top sales peoples as country manager, and many fail.Why is that?Managing a company as a representative director requires not only sales skills but management, finance, HR skills. You need to be a generalist and not a specialist.But still many companies do the same mistake and finally we know how it ends up.He is the top guy from the competition, so he will be our best assetYes maybe he know the trade, he know the customers. But if someone comes from competition so easily, he might leave for competition too.As in the Godfather “Don Corleone: [to Michael] Listen, whoever comes to you with this Barzini meeting, he’s the traitor. Don’t forget that.”Let’s become local!Sometimes replacing your foreign country manager by a Japanese national is not the best choice. (it depends of course on the company and if it is in a startup phase or in a mature phase)Think again twice who you want to have on your side (and not only on the customer’s side).Those are only few examples. But believe me or not, it led to failure of many gaishikei in Japan.One last advice, you will often find a “Japan expert” in the headquarter (someone who spent some years in Japan or “likes” Japan). Do not rely on them and please trust the boots on the ground (wether Japanese or foreign nationals).To view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/zDj9w-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuTue, 10 May 2016 16:31:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/zDj9w-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/zV8Pw-money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuDoing interviews in Japan is a big part of my job.We often read articles on interviews in Japan from the candidate point of view.I will share with you what you can expect if you are in the position of interviewing candidates for a position in a gaishikei.The process of interviews in Japan:The budget:First of all you will need a budget to recruit your candidate.You generally submit your budget each year to your headquarter for approval (it includes budget for sales, gross margin, the opex or operating expenses, means the money you will use, ...etc)You will also detail the positions you will need to fill.Either a replacement (if someone left your company, in my case I am lucky as everyone is still on board) or new positions (which will have to be justified by additional sales if you recruit a sales person, or to be justified by some other reason, i.e. increase of orders in a case of an administration person, or because of some regulatory issues in the case of a regulatory affairs person or technical support person).The preparation:You have few different methods to find the right candidate:1) You can ask your employees to introduce someone. (they will get some money for it).It works sometimes, but it is risky because it involves some conflict (if the person introduced does not perform well enough, the employee who introduced him/her might feel he/she lost face, ...)2) You can use large recruiting sites like Recruit. You put some advertisement for the position and interested candidates will apply for it.It can be a economical way to find the right candidate (it might cost you less than 1 Million Yen or 10K USD roughly) but you will get really a lot of resume.If you have a human resources person to do the screening it's OK, but if you are alone to recruit (like in my case) you will not have the time to go through hundreds of resume (sometimes peoples who are totally out of your industry, with nothing matching your requirements, and who just applied "just to try")3) You can use headhunters (more on headhunters in Japan in this post)It's not cheap. In general they will charge you 30% to 35% of the first year salary (including bonus).But they will do the screening by themselves and will bring you few good candidates to interview.90% of the employees I recruited in the past few years came from this channel.The interview process itself:When you got the resume (ask for both Japanese resume if you can read it and English one, as sometimes information in the Japanese resume is more dense), and selected the candidates to interview, you can move to the interview phase.One important point. If you want to keep such interviews confidential, ask the headhunters to call you only on your mobile phone and not on the company dial-in.Why keeping such process confidential?In case of a strategic move (i.e. creating a Joint Venture where you will need additional staff) or just because you do not want your competition or distributors to understand your next moves, you will have to keep this process confidential.Another reason is also not to have the employees worried. If they get many calls from recruiting agencies, they might imagine that someone will be axed and might worry for their job.So do it alone or with your human resources person if you have one.What comes next?•The interview: building in advance a scenario is important.•How many interviews before to select the right candidate?•When and how to involve the headquarter?•Which kind of profiles you might meet during the interview phase?•How to secure the right candidate and motivate him/her to join your company?If you want to read more about interviews in Japan, drop me a line and I will post more on this topic.Some other posts to read about this subject:How to develop your relationship with headhuntersJobs in Japan: How too recruit the best peoplesHow to recruit the best peoples in Japan / Part IITo view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/zV8Pw-money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuTue, 22 Mar 2016 14:53:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/zV8Pw-money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/MJ4yG-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuPresident in JapanThe name has been changed and has nothing to do with the current Chairman of CANON. Mr. Mitarai was the president at my first Gaishikei, the subsidiary in Japan of a French company in the software industry. We were about 20 employees and the company had sales, marketing and technical support functions (such as answering customer enquiries, reporting bugs, doing some programming for the customers, demonstrating the products to potential buyers, and so on). I was in this function. Our president was in his sixties. He had been there for few years and was previously president of a US company in the same domain of activity. While we were in the IT industry he was not so confident with the use of his PC but still demonstrated impressive skills with Solitaire game packaged with Windows. Every time I could get a glimpse of his computer screen I could see the familiar layout of the Solitaire game. He was the typical Japanese gaishikei Shachou (社長 means president sha/社 is coming from kaisha/会社 which means company and chou/長 which means head or chief, as in head of the company). You could and still can find such individuals in gaishikei.The typical profile is:* Elder, or let's say senior, which is supposed to inspire respect* Fluent or at least proficient in English* Graduated from a major university (such as Tokyo University, Waseda or Keio)* Having worked in the same industry, maybe at the competitor for example and supposingly having all the "connexions".* More concentrated on showing a good face to the headquarter than to solve problems in the subsidiary.* Heavily involved in dinners/entertainment with local management, distributors (in case we need to put some stock at the end of the year to "reach the target")Iwas not at that time in any management position or in a need to know position so had no access to the financials of the company. It happened at the end that we had been losing money from the beginning, but still running the operation as if nothing had been cooking (maybe in the books but this I do not know). Finally the company has been acquired, the subsidiary closed and I moved, but this is another story.Conclusion of the story:I am still surprised that still as of today, it can be in management position or in other technical function, the idea of "if he speaks very good English, he must be very good" is still widespread among peoples hiring in gaishikei (being in the gaishikei itself or at the headquarter level).This is one pitfall to avoid when recruiting, it might be important but all depends on the position and if a necessary condition it is certainly not a sufficient condition. As he was at the age of retirement, Mr. Mitaira retired, surely with a good package and... opened his recruiting business, introducing peoples to gaishikei! He has been successful or I believe so since then. Beside all those negative comments, he had a very nice and kind personality and took well care of me, at this time and even after.To view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/MJ4yG-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuThu, 17 Mar 2016 14:42:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/MJ4yG-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GyBDw-living_food_money_transportation_tokyo_chiyoda-kuWhat is a memorable Settai?I was asked recently to write something about "How to impress the boss with a memorable Settai".A Settai being basically customer entertainment, you might find hard to justify company expenses just for your boss. (and if he is your boss he might invite you and not the reverse. Except if he is a bubbly salaryman, more about this here)Now, you might find a good occasion to impress your guest (the client) and at the same time your boss with a memorable Settai.How to define a memorable settai in such occasion?It should be well organizedIt should have uniquenessIt should be well executedA memorable Settai is well organized:One stage or Two stagesFirst of all you should decide if you will have one stage or two stages. (see more about The Art of Settai here).If depends if you will go to only one restaurant, or move to another place like a drinking establishment after.It will all depends on the level of intimacy you have with your guests and your boss.If you are with your boss and if he is not the type to drink late (especially if he is coming from the Headquarter and is jet-lagged - more about the Headquarter peoples here), you might chose to execute this Settai with one well-selected place.Especially if you are on company expenses, your boss might not appreciate that you are spending so much and might imagine that you are doing this everyday...The location and transportation:The place or places your will go to should be well researched and located.If you send the client some invitation, include a map. Or better visit them, have a taxi arranged to pick all of you and move to the place. (it avoids to have to find some taxi outside in a rainy night)Inform the taxi company of the FROM and the TO, and indicate which time you want to be there. They will check-up the route and will inform you when they will pick you up.Keep with you printed map of the places (if the taxi does not know how to use his navigation system, yes it happens a lot)In case, send to your mobile e-mail address the Google map location of the places too.When finishing the Settai, you can give taxi ticket to the guests (they fill in the amount at the end and the taxi company invoices your company at the end of the month).The uniqueness of a memorable Settai:You guests (and your boss at the same time) should remember this evening like a very pleasant one.You should treat them to some unique place, not the places they could go every night.It does not need to be extremely expensive (well sometimes it is) but the atmosphere, the decoration or some attraction should be unique and specific to this place.You have won when they consider at the end of the party that it is some place where they would like to treat their own clients.If your clients are satisfied, you can be sure that your boss will be too.One example:I took last year some of our clients and my boss to a restaurant in Kagurazaka in Tokyo. The place is named Ajisen (Kagurazaka Ajisen)It features traditional Japanese cuisine with a show of Shamisen (more about this on Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamisen), traditional singing or dance.This is not something you can see everyday, and enjoying this in the center of Tokyo, while dining and drinking can be a good occasion to entertain your clients (and your boss).Our clients are visiting now regularly this place.The execution of a memorable Settai:Choosing the seats:In traditional Japanese rooms, you will have what you call Kamiza (上座 more on this in Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamiza).This refers to the top seat, where the "highest" person should seat.Check the position of your clients, how they are ranked in their organization so not to make any mistake.This applies to Taxi too!Budget:Check before the budget you want to invest in this Settai. Check if the place takes credit card or if only cash (rare case though).You might well visit the place to talk about them with your budget. Some of them will accept to make a special course for you based on the price per guest you want to invest. (for the meal only, for drinks it's another story)Timing:If some of your guests do not like long evening (or your jet-lagged boss), you might have to manage the timing during this memorable Settai to avoid displeasing them.This is again something you can manage with the restaurant you will go to. You can indicate that the dinner should be finished within i.e. 2 hours. (they will bring the hot tea at the end indicating that it's over).With all this in mind, you should have everything to make it happen. They will surely be a memorable Settai.To view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GyBDw-living_food_money_transportation_tokyo_chiyoda-kuMon, 14 Mar 2016 14:58:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GyBDw-living_food_money_transportation_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/za4AM-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuThe Japanese salaryman is an iconic symbol of Japan.Often critized for not taking care enough of family, spending too much times in the office, in meetings, in drinking with customers, he is in fact a real hero of modern Japanese society.If I have to remember my almost 2 decades working life in Japan, many words could express the symbolic of the Japanese salaryman: Commitment, Never give up, and on top of this: Girininjyou (義理人情)I was often asked what was my favorite word or expression in Japanese.I often failed to give a straight and direct answer as I did not reflect enough on this.I can answer now and today that it is Girininjyou義理人情What is Girininjyou (義理人情 ):Girininjyou (義理人情) is based on the word 義理 (giri) which means duty or obligation and 人情 (ninjyou) which means Human empathy.It is an unique combination, very Japanese and very human. It expresses the duty and empathy you feel to peoples who have helped you and that when the time is ripe you will help in return.Some examples:You might for some reason stop your contract with a distributor in Japan, but you might as well give them another opportunity when you develop business in another segment.You might cancel an exhibition (trade-show) and have the sales person from the organizer not happy in front of you but you might give them another chance, for another trade-show.You might leave your company but still give some information/opportunities to them whenever you have a chance (because they treated you well and so on)This is a post I could develop for a while.Meanwhile, to understand the roots of this post, you can refer to:Mr. Tahara, the salaryman not taking care enough of his familly.The time spent in meetingsAnd also the time spent for japanese salaryman drinking in (Part I and Part II)and also japanese salaryman entertaining customers (Part I and Part II)You can also follow me on twitter at @gaishikeimanJPFeel free to check also City-Costfor more news about Japan.To view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/za4AM-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuSat, 05 Mar 2016 23:58:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/za4AM-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/M950M-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kua post in quora: Is official corruption/bribery a bigger problem in Japan than in the United States?This is a very complex subject and I answered about this question in a post in quora.Of course, as in any country, you will always find cases of corruption/bribery and in general it does not remain unpunished in Japan.It can take time before it is discovered but at the end there are sanctions. I know of a case of high level manager in a giant conglomerate who took some money from suppliers to give them preference for some business. He has been staying for few years in a jail.We see in Japan a very big focus on compliance:Customers (especially purchasing/procurement departments) are told not to accept gifts from suppliers (or it should have a value estimated at under 2,000JPY - well under 20 USD)I had a case recently of a customer I took to dinner. He requested me to see the bill at the end of the dinner to report to his management how much was invested for his presence...Public officers (i.e. government related) are asked to report on a monthly basis how much money they got from the industry for sponsored activities (i.e. a speech in a symposium) and in general there is a limit to the amount of compensation they can receive.On another level, we see different ways to give preference to business in Japan. There is a myriad of what we call trading companies/dealers/distributors in Japan. Often when you want to do some business with a company (end-user) they ask you to go through their official distributor/trading company. It's somehow like outsourcing their procurement activity.One customer could have a relationship with one main distributor and this distributor would purchase all products from several manufacturers on behalf of the customer. (in the life-science industry, I know a trading company handling the products from almost 1000 manufacturers)Sometimes you have to deal with distributor, sub-distributor, sub-sub distributor and so on before to reach the end-user. No wonder that final prices are often inflated to an extent that we cannot see in US or Europe.Why? There is a common belief that at some time in Japan there was not enough job for everyone. So early a "work-sharing concept" was designed in Japan. Large companies were giving job to their local suppliers or distributors to help develop the local economy.Even now, even multinational companies are asking you to have goods purchased by their assigned distributor, some times a Mom and Pop company near their place. Of course, this distributor would bring some service on top of that. They would visit the customer everyday, manage their stock and deliver the goods.So as a conclusion, this cannot maybe called bribery/corruption but it is a stealth way to give some preference to some suppliers.if you are interested in other posts I submitted to Quora about business life in Japan, you can refer to this page: http://directionjapan.com/started-to-contribute-to-quora/To view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/M950M-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuSat, 05 Mar 2016 00:08:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/M950M-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/z4YxG-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuThis is a follow-up on my post about the Art of Settaiin Japan.We enter now in the second part of this post and we will see what happens (or not) in the second place.As Settai is also a kind of Nomikai (more about The Art of Nomikai in Japan), you can expect a 二次会 (nijikai or second party, see more about this).After finishing your dinner, you will most probably move to another place.Three choices:Your host will catch a cab in the streetThe place where you had dinner will call a taxi and the car will be waiting for you outside of the restaurant.If your host is a real VIP, he might have his driver waiting for you with his Lexus or another brand of car waiting for you.So now, the second place:I have to tell the truth.There might not be any second place.You might just finish your settai in the first place. Having dinner, then bye-bye.In some cases your host will handle you a taxi ticket (you just give the ticket to the driver, the invoice will be sent to the host's company).But then, if you really go to a second place, it might involve presence of ladies.You have a myriad of choices in Japan.It can be sophisticated hostess clubs in Ginza.It can be small snacks (you have the owner, generally an older lady and with some younger girls, sometimes you have a karaoke too)It can be キャバクラ (read Kyabakura which is a contraction of Cabaret and Club) which is a wilder version of hostess clubs.It can be Girls bar (which is a cheaper version of Kyabakura, where the main difference is that ladies do not seat next to you but sit behind the bar counter - due to a different license for the shop)In any case, the typical pattern will be the same.You will have some ladies close to you, facilitating the conversation with you host, talking to you too and pour you drinks. (sometimes will drink together with you, their drinks are not free of course)In some cases your host will have what they call a bottle-keep, which is a bottle bought from the shop and kept so they can drink whenever they want. Often Whisky or shochu.If on company expense, on the bottle you will have the name of the company. (so nothing to be ashamed of)In the second place, you can expect to spend from 1 hour to several hours (last time I was invited we stayed 4 hours...)Talks will be less about business (because also of the presence of ladies) but more relax type, talk about family, society matters and so on...The purpose is: To get familiar with each other, to get close and to develop a relationship that will facilitate the business when you are back in business mode. We enjoyed together, so we should help each other.This is not conflict of interest. It is more about trying to have smooth business relationships and avoiding conflicts.Well, if some peoples are interested I can write more about "clubs in ladies in Japan" or "how to impress you boss with a nice settai", let me know.Meanwhile you can follow all posts on directionjapan.com or on Twitter @GaishikeimanJPTo view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/z4YxG-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuSat, 27 Feb 2016 13:09:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/z4YxG-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/M9L0w-living_food_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuSettai is another side of business in Japan.Following my post about The Art of Nomikai in Japan, I am gladly bringing you all you need to know about Settai.Settai or接待 means “Business entertainment” (the two characters mean basically “to connect” and “to entertain or to practice hospitality or play host”).It related to a business practice where a company will invite another (client or potential client) to spend a time together which should bring the two (or several) entities closer.As this post might be very long as it is related to a very specific matter of business relationships between companies, I decided to divide it in several parts.The types of Settai:In a Settai, either you are the guest or the host.A Settai is not necessary a 1 to 1 relationship and is not necessary a president to president relationship.You can have a sales person inviting a sales person from his supplier or client.You can have a distributor inviting a supplier and a potential client to make a smooth relationship for a future deal.So basically it can involve several peoples inviting several peoples. (or several companies inviting several companies)Whatever the rank the Settai will remain the Settai.I will first explain what you have to expect if you are the guest and so invited by a company (either your customer, your supplier or another business relationship).The typical Nagare (or 流れ) or the typical “flow” of a Settai:First the invitation:You will be invited to a Settai either by e-mail, phone or in more formal cases, you will receive a formal letter or postcard indicating the time and place.(you can expect your team to have “pre-meetings” about this… you can read about meetings in Japan too here)In some cases you will be expected to meet directly at the venue, in other cases you will meet the company at their office and move to the venue by taxi most probably.(or by foot if it is really close, and if you are close with the company inviting you).Second, the first place:The first place in a Settai will be most probably a typical Japanese restaurant, maybe in a private room. Expect a 2 hours dinner.If you are very close to the company inviting you and if you are invited by a sales person if might be a more relaxed place (like a fusion French, a Yakiniku place, or other, …)As Settai is also a kind of Nomikai (more about Nomikai in Japan hereand also here) expect to have several drinks.First 50% percent of the time you will spend in the first place (1 hour) will be mainly on casual talking, second part (fueled by alcohol) will be mainly on what the other side is expecting from you or your company.Do not expect pressure, this is after all an occasion to spend a good time together and to pass lightly some messages that would be to formal to pass during normal business time.Third, the second place…But this will be part of a second post and I hope you will enjoy reading this too.you can now subscribe to newsletter on this site “Keep in touch and subscribe” on the front page at http://directionjapan.com/ and also follow me on Twitter at @GaishikeimanJPTo view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/M9L0w-living_food_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuTue, 23 Feb 2016 22:48:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/M9L0w-living_food_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GReez-living_money_education_tokyo_chiyoda-kuHow to recruit the best peoples in Japan is the most demanding task for management peoples.I will not be able to comment on Japanese company recruiting system (they have a very well organized recruiting process and mainly recruiting fresh peoples from university).I will comment mainly on foreign companies in Japan or so-called Gaishikei.What is your need?Depending on your need in terms of staff you will have to chose between basically 3 patterns:The 正社員 (seishain) or full-fledged/proper employee. Fully employed, has a contract, no limit in time in the employment contract, basically 3 months probation period.The 契約社員 (keiyaku shain) or contract employee. It is a contract which can be limited. I.e. 1 year contract, you can renew and so on, depending on your needs.The 派遣 (haken) or dispatch employee. You outsource your staff needs to one company and they will dispatch employee to your company. You just pay hourly fee (you can have someone 3 days a week from 10 AM to 5 PM) and you just pay the hourly fee to the company. No need to pay social insurance or other premiums.The PRO and CON of each system:The full-fledged employee:You have to consider him/her as a long term employee in your company. It will be very difficult to fire him/her. Be careful in the interview process and invest in peoples who will be willing to stay on the long-term. One idea to have them stay on board is also to have some part of their compensation based on some king of retirement fund (some part of the monthly salary paid to the retirement fund, if retires before x years, will not get all the amount)The Contract Employee:It might be a good idea to have him/her when you have a specific project. For example an IT ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system implementation or other.You are quite free as the contract is limited on time.The Dispatch Employee:They are often used to match with your human resources needs (i.e. short term increase in administration work, or so on)One big difference with the Full-fledged employee or Contract employee is that you will use a dispatch company and that basically you will have no interview (or maybe 1 but basically on the basis that you will take the person).The advantage is that you can change the person any time. Basically the contract is a 3 months contract, renewable for another 3 months period.Some plan also propose to move the Dispatch employee to a full-fledged employee if the person matches your needs.For an administration person for example expect 1,800Yen/hour to 2,000Yen/hour. Keep in mind that you do not need to pay any social charges (which is in case of a full fledged employee basically 15% of the salary + bonus)Where to find all those peoples?The full-fledged employee or Contract employee:Either use headhunters or local (Japanese) recruiting agencies.Please keep in mind that you will have to pay 30~35% of the annual salary of the person you will recruit. Better to be on the safe side and work with different agencies. Do not hurry but find the right staff.A proper hiring process would involve several interview.In my case I have first interview with candidates. In the second interview I might involved the headquarter (Skype) but keep in mind that it is not because the candidate speaks well English that he/she is the one. Finally I have a last interview more to check on the "feelings". Can we work together or not.For Sales or Admin, I suggest Robert Walters, CDS, En WORLD. It might be costly but they bring nice peoples.The Dispatch Employee:Use either Recruit Staffing or En World, Pasona, Mainichi staff... there are plenty of.Be aware that 1) you will mostly have to pay some advance money before to be allowed to recruit a staff, do not worry it is only about 2,000USD and 2) you will not be able to really "interview" the staff. They will decide for your company and you might have one meeting but not a real interview.But still you can change anytime.I have one "Dispatch" in my company. She has been working for us for already 6 years and is performing well, working 3 days a week.To view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GReez-living_money_education_tokyo_chiyoda-kuFri, 19 Feb 2016 22:41:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GReez-living_money_education_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/z11vz-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuMeetings in Japan has often been discussed in many books, blogs, threads and so on.There is a word in Japanese which is 議論 (Giron) , which means "discussion". (you can check it on this good online dictionnary: http://www.alc.co.jp/ )If a colleague suggests you to "discuss" about something, you might end up in endless meetings.While it is part of the Japanese culture to try to reach a consensus through a series of meetings, it can often suck an extraordinary amount of corporate time.If you are working in a foreign company, so-called Gaishikei, it might be different, but still you will be working mainly with Japanese and as it is part of the culture, you will have to live-up with the fact that you might spend your day in a meeting room.Some memories about Meetings in Japan:If announced in advance, and if let's say 10 peoples will attend the meeting, you can expect that each of them will have prepared a lot of documents.And of course, a copy of each document for each participant. So more paper on your desk at the end of the meeting. (most probably it will not be printed on both sides, but who cares?)(If we talk about paper and IT-less environment you might be interested to read my other post here: http://directionjapan.com/it-in-the-workplace-in-japan/Either lunch time, or some urgency will save you from the meeting going on for long hours.Be careful of meetings announced to start at 4:00PM, you might well be in for a long night in the office.Some peoples will just do presentation using their printed documents, reading all those pages.Some more adventurous will use powerpoint (sometimes with tons of text packed in each slide - no powerpoint is not a wordprocessing tool).Some even more adventurous will use Excel, but again to pack more text in the sheet.(Still Excel is still used as a wordprocessing tool in many occasions in Japan, even now.)The Pre-Meetings in Japan:In clubs, you have "afters", in Japan for meetings you have "before" (you have "afters" also but will be discussed later)In order to reach a consensus, most peoples will have pre-meetings. Maybe one-to-one meeting with each member in order to build a pre-consensus.So you would expect that when the real meeting takes place, all has been decided, and the meeting is quickly over.Nope. Still time for "Discussion" is required.So now calculate the amount of time necessary to reach a conclusion.If you have 10 participants and one of them has the reach aconsensus in the group and take a decision.It equals to 9 pre-meetings and 1 general meeting. So generally more than 12 hours of corporate time...Then you have to add the "afters". Generally you will end-up going out with your colleagues to have some drink and maybe some Hanseikai (more about Hanseikai and the general drinking party in Japan in my post here).How am I dealing with all those meetings in Japan?Simply by reducing their numbers.I prefer to have 15 minutes one-to-one meeting with each employee.Bring me your problems, bring me your solutions and let's decide together.My door is always open and they can have as many 15 minutes meetings with me as they want.Generally they do not overflow me with requests.When I need to take a decision where I need several peoples to be involved, I still use the pre-meetings approach (short meeting please), but then will shorten to the extreme the general meeting.Bringing opinions and conclusions in a very concise manner, maybe some powerpoint, distributed after by e-mail.Some typical characters you will find in meetings in Japan:You surely find them everywhere in the world, but here it is related to my own experience in Japan.The "meeting lover":He has been in the company for so many years that he has plenty to tell. Often will talk about things not related to the topic of the meeting and might go on talking for long minutes, delaying the whole process.The "Let's take a break":Will often ask for a break (mainly to go for a smoke), will then be called for some urgency at his desk and will delay the restart of the meeting.The "Mood breaker":Will be silent during all the meeting, but at the end, when everybody is moving toward a conclusion, will say "but what if..." and then "Discussions" will restart again.The "Paper monster":Will have everything printed (of course one set for each participant), with big A3 size excel print-outs with tiny numbers, graphs and tons of copy that you definitely do not want to file or even keep on your desk.The "Party animal":Each meeting is a good occasion to go to drink after. So he will eagerly join.The "Task-Force master":Be careful! He is the one suggesting to create a task force for some issues. Which will result in more meetings. (he might even suggests several "Task-Forces")... So run away.Meetings are important, part of the corporate life and helping to bring peoples together. They should however be used in a proper manner and too-many meetings kill the "meeting" spirit.To view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/z11vz-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuThu, 18 Feb 2016 14:33:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/z11vz-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GROKw-living_food_shopping_tokyo_chiyoda-kuWhile I am busy writing a blog on working in Japan at http://directionjapan.comI am also willing to share what is best for peoples coming from abroad and willing to enjoy Japanese life and also own country food.For most foreign residents in Japan, there are a lot of shops dedicated to them when it comes to buy imported food.I will not list-up all of them as most peoples know Nisshin located in Azabu Juban (http://www.nissin-world-delicatessen.jp/), The Meat Guy (http://www.themeatguy.jp/)when it comes to internet site, or CostCo and related wholesalers.There is however a Japanese company with many stores in Japan bringing nice meat for all occasions.This company is Hanamasa.Their motto is:"Food starts conversations and creates smiles""Food is power and hospitality""Food is memory and hope""Everything begins with food"Only in Tokyo, they have places in Akasaka, Akihabara, Asakusa, Ikebukuro, Itabashi, Ichigaya, Ooimachi, Omori, Ohana-Jaya, Kamata, Kameari, Kami-Igusa, Kanda, Ginza, Kinshicho, Kojiya, SangenJaya, Shibaura, Shin-Okachimachi, Shinkawa, Sugamo, Sumiyoshi, Senzoku, Takinogawa, Tsurukawa, Dozaka, Tomigaya, Toritsu-dai, Nakano, Niihori, Nishi-Arai, Nishi-Shinjuku, Nishi-Shinbashi, Nihonbashi-Takaracho, Nihonbashi-Honcho, Negishi, Hirai-Ekimae, Honancho, Minami-Azabu, Yushima.So it's a lot of shops inside Tokyo.Originally it was not dedicated to the foreign community, but brought quality products for restaurants. And many local restaurants are buying there because you can find product on a "wholesale quantity", means extra bulk chips packs or huge tomato cans. This is also true for meat. You can find imported meat at a very affordable price and in extra quantity. (i.e. 1Kg or more, while in a Japanese supermarket you would buy this by 100~200g pack).I often use it when I am in a mood to cook some nice meat or organize a BBQ.As of today, I have never been disappointed by the quality of meat or fish.(Regarding fish, depending on the shop they can cut and arrange the fish for you)Also some shops have delivery options, so they will bring all you bought to your home.To view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GROKw-living_food_shopping_tokyo_chiyoda-kuMon, 15 Feb 2016 22:53:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GROKw-living_food_shopping_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GoWYG-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuThe bubble economy is backAll in this story is related of several posts in my blog at http://directionjapan.comAgain in my first gaishikei, Mr. Tahara was my boss, a pure product from the bubble economy. First of all I want to say that he has been always caring for me, taking care of both my job and my private life. He even rejoined me in my next company and I have mostly only good memories with him. At a young age, when just starting in Japan he has been a fatherly figure for me and I will always be grateful to him. Even today, we exchange new years cards. Mr. Tahara was graduated from a very good university, after his graduation he joined a top Japanese company and got married with a pretty reception lady from his company and got 2 children. So, for him, as his job as a husband and a father was done, he moved on. When he joined our company he was in his forties still and was what I would call a "bubbly" salaryman. This refers to Japan's bubble economy of the 1980s. (more on Wikipedia on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_asset_price_bubble ) Peoples who have been working before the bubble crashed and enjoyed prosperity still keep for some of them such relation to money and enjoy spending, partying and so on...A typical day and night activityMr. Tahara was managing the technical support team in the company. He was a master of his craft and was respected by customers and distributors. He was a hard worker too and was partying hard also. His typical week consisted of a succession of early arrivals to the office, long working days and hard drinking nights, sometimes until the wee hours of the morning. More than often, he did not come back home but spent night in a sauna, had hot noodles on his way to the office and restarted his routine. Most probably as he had been doing all those years during the bubble economy.He was time to time even coming to the office on the weekend, maybe to work on some important project, but maybe also not to stay at home and care of his family and having another occasion to party at night. I had my fair share of joining him in his nightly expeditions and as I was living in central Tokyo (nearby the office in a small apartment rented by the company), he often took this opportunity to crash at my place. We were then going together to the office the next morning (or the same morning, at a later time, should I say). As far as I know most of his activities were not sponsored by company funds and he did not put this on expenses (except if he was with customers).Some do however abuse the system and I saw it at many occasions. I saw top sales managers spending more than 300,000 JPY per night or more than 1 Million Yen per month on entertainment.(might have been OK during the bubbleeconomy). While entertainment can be and is justified, it should be done with a purpose in mind and regulated. If you are in a position where you need to investigate and set-up rules (or undercover misconduct), it is quite simple.Few rules and tips: Take the past 3 months expenses notes from the person you want to check. (most probably a sales person or sales manager as other are generally not entitled to entertainment)Check the amounts involved, the patterns (i.e. every Friday, with the same customer/distributor,... the same place?)One quick check: if the amount is very round, i.e. 4,900 JPY, 49,000 JPY, 30,000 JPY, and you cannot read or check the place, you can be fairly sure it is a night entertainment place as hostess club. For normal restaurants, except if you are lucky you get more decimals and 4,934 JPY type of bills.Entertainment costs have decreased a lot in the past years in Japan (and as a consequence a lot of snacks and hostess clubs closed in Ginza, or have be replaced by cheaper Chinese counterparts). Recently, large companies, even when wined and dined are asking how much the cost was as per their compliance rules.To view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GoWYG-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuSat, 13 Feb 2016 23:38:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GoWYG-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GlVdM-living_food_tokyo_chiyoda-kuNomikai in Japan is an art to be mastered if you want to survive in the corporate worldAbout the meaning: Nomikai (written 飲み会 can be translated as "drinking session" from 飲む: drink and 会:meeting, session, gathering, ...)If you are a salaryman in a Japanese company or even a Gaishikei (more about Foreign companies in Japan here), you will be expected to join your fellow salarymen in drinking sessions.Mostly after work, your colleagues or boss might tap your shoulder and invite you to have some drinks with them.There are plenty of occasions and I will describe few of them.The official Nomikai:Shinnenkai (新年会　or New year's party)It brings generally all the office or depending on your size can be arranged by departments/divisions. Also you might have some shinnnenkai with your distributors/customers. All in one you might have to join several of them in January.Bounenkai ( 忘年会　or End of the year's party)This is mainly to celebrate the end of the year. Even if Japanese companies have their fiscal year finishing generally end of March, it is generally held in December.This is the occasion to forget everything, including ranking relationship within the company. Be prepared to see thousands of salarymen in the streets, often inebriated to an extent which is unbelievable for peoples coming from abroad.Reservations are often done very early as most of the places will be crowded with parties.The more regular Nomikai:Hanseikai (反省会 or evaluation meeting, it is also translated by ALC as "post-mortem meeting"...)This is generally a drinking session after a customer meeting, or some event which not have gone as you expected to reflect the root causes, to think about what could be improved and so on...Kangeikai (歓迎会 or welcome party)Generally a new employee joins the company you have some dinner or drinking session with them to get to know him/her and to let him/her get to know the other employees.Soubetsukai (送別会　or farewell party)This is when an employee leaves the company. It can be for good or bad reasons. Depending on the cases you might have a general company soubetsukai with all the employees and many smaller sessions with his/her department (in case they want to complain about the boss...)On top of that there are plenty of occasions to have a nomikai, here are some more:Finishing a project -> let's have a Nomikai3 days exhibition in Big sight -> let's drink all together the last dayWant to complain about the boss -> another Nomikai session with your colleaguesLost a customer? -> another Nomikai with your boss which might turn into a HanseikaiNow how to deal about some many drinking sessions and with your health?Situation has evolved in Japan compared to the eighties or even the nineties.Before you used to have the following schedule:Nomikai with let's say 15 members (from 18:00 to 20:00)Then nijikai (二次会 or second party) maybe in a karaoke with less peoples (around 10 members) as some are leaving very farThen finally a sanjikai (三次会 or third party), maybe in a bar with only the core members (4 or 5 of them)At this stage, either you could not find a train and then decided to party more (some peoples applied for "Sick-ill" as they say the next day and did not come office) or they were coming back by taxi.Recently, most of companies at least in the industries I have been working in are finishing after 1 or 2 parties and many companies will accept that the employees want to come back just after the first party.To view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GlVdM-living_food_tokyo_chiyoda-kuTue, 09 Feb 2016 15:13:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/GlVdM-living_food_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/wkW8w-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuHow advanced is Japan?We all might have the idea of a very high-tech country.This is after all the country of vending machines (5Mio in Japan including ATM)If you look at only drinks (coffee, milk, beers and so on), you have about 2.5 millions vending machine in Japan.At the same time, Japan relies a lot on FAX. You get orders from customers by FAX.You confirm of course the order reception by another FAX.You send the dispatch order to your warehouse by... yes by FAX.The warehouse will of course answers that the goods have been dispatched by another FAX.The customer (end-user) might even confirm to you he received the goods by another FAX.You might end-up finding all those papers put in large binders and stored in even larger cabinets.Many exchanges on the topic of "How advanced is Japan" have been done on Quora. You can look at this post: https://www.quora.com/How-advanced-is-JapanI wrote also a post in general about IT in the workplace in Japan on my blog:http://directionjapan.com/it-in-the-workplace-in-japan/You can see too that EXCEL is the MUST to do word-processing in Japan.All written above is based on my own experience and might not represent the whole corporate Japan (but still I could experience this more than once...)To view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/wkW8w-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuFri, 05 Feb 2016 14:14:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/wkW8w-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/MJW4z-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuForeign company in Japan or GaishikeiWhile this word will be used many times through this blog (and has been already), no Wikipedia page exists for it.The word Gaishikei (in Japanese 外資系) refers to foreign companies or multinational companies in Japan. The word comes from gaikoku (外国 the first character 外 being used there) which means "out of the country", the country being Japan, it means "out of Japan" or "Foreign".The second character used is shi (資) which comes from shihon （資本) which means capital as in a company capital. So we have "Foreign Capital".Finally the last character kei (系) means corollary or related to. We generally talk in the press about gaishikei kigyou (外資系企業). Kigyou (企業) means simply a company, so we have foreign capital companies.On the contrary Nikkei Kigyou (日系企業) would relate to a Japanese affiliated company. the Ni (日) relates to Nihon （日本) or Japan.That's it for Gaishikei. I recommend you a nice English<->Japanese dictionnary available on the web for free: ARUKU (アルク) http://www.alc.co.jpTo view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/MJW4z-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuThu, 04 Feb 2016 22:28:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/MJW4z-living_money_tokyo_chiyoda-kuhttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/Mg3OM-living_tokyo_chiyoda-kumy time in japan, the Origin:I came to Japan in the late 90's.At that time, as far as I could remember two industries were very strong.The IT industry, with all foreign software companies (either from US or Europe) expanding, hiring more peoples (and for some of them hiring and firing depending on Quarterly performances).And at the same time the Recruiting companies (i.e. Access Technology) moving all those IT peoples from one company to another.Few years later, many software companies went through a painful and lengthy process of mergers, laying off plenty of peoples and the top recruiting companies dedicated to those Gaishikei (Foreign companies in Japan) disappeared from the scene.I take this occasion to mention (most of you might have noticed it) that I am not a native English speaker but as all languages, important is to be able to communicate... somehow.More to come about:My first GaishikeiHow Gaishikei were allowed to lose money for so many years during this periodTo view the full contents of this page visit www.city-cost.comPostshttps://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/Mg3OM-living_tokyo_chiyoda-kuThu, 04 Feb 2016 22:18:00 +0900https://www.city-cost.comhttps://www.city-cost.com/blogs/DirectionJapan/Mg3OM-living_tokyo_chiyoda-ku