Japanese People and their Dreams of the Future

February 28, 2008 by Marie

The average Japanese salaryman does work and almost nothing else. And the average Japanese government worker does almost nothing. This is a very common notion that most Japanese people have. The average working man in Japan begins working straight after graduation, and serves the same company for about 40 years, slowly working his way up from being a freshman to manager to a then higher position, if he’s good enough. Performance is neglected in favor of years of service and seniority. To balance the work force, employees are often moved around from department to department, or from location to location. The same goes for the government worker. The only difference is that government workers still have job security, at least in the years after the Bubble.

I got all this information from my former superior. He was very much the anti-salaryman life man. He quit his regular 8 to 10 job with a then up-and-coming private company for a very sedate government job in his hometown. His reasoning was that instead of taking the 6:30 a.m. train out and getting in 11:30 p.m. , he’d leave for work at 8:00 a.m. on his bicycle and leave work at exactly 5:30 p.m. and be able to enjoy dinner with his family, and maybe even have time for a nighttime game of tennis. According to him, he just goes to work, dwindles his thumbs and dreams of retirement. He also said that if he tried to do anything new or innovative at work, his efforts would quickly get squashed in the “protruding nail gets hammered in” fashion, anyway. So, since he was getting a stable income, what was there to complain about?

Since listening to his story, I’ve started to ask people what they’d like to do when they retired, and a lot have very detailed plans for that time. It’s about the only time I see glints of excitement in Japanese people’s eyes. They talk of opening sembei shops, or climbing as many mountains as they can, or moving to an exotic island paradise. So I thought, oh okay, what saves them from boredom or in the worst case scenario, insanity, was that some, if not all of them had dreams of the future, specifically for their retirement days. I guess that’s not so bad, since Japanese people tend to live long…

Posted in Daily Life, Modern Culture, People | Tagged salaryman, japan, future dreams, government worker | 7 Comments

7 Responses to “Japanese People and their Dreams of the Future”

on February 29, 2008 at 2:02 am1 simaldeff

Living in japan doesn’t mean that you have to live like the average japanese guy. My dream of going there to work is mostly about food and the fact that I’d like to work in “not so average job” … If I can’t go to training at least twice a week and be lazy at least 40 hours per week then it’s not a life for me.
BTW isn’t it depressing that you’ll get freedom only when you will get a body that can’t follow on the things you wanted to do?
on February 29, 2008 at 11:26 am2 Marie

Hi simaldeff!

My former boss shared the same sentiments. He left work early, went hiking and skiing maybe 30 to 40 times a year, watched baseball games, traveled abroad with his family at least once a year. He wanted his son to enjoy the same life, too. So his son didn’t attend cram schools or do “naraigoto” (which are additional classes, like music and sports classes, that kids are sort of forced to do everyday after school).

While working and doing your best is always good, there should still be a work/life balance, I think. But in their case, they are fit and healthy when they retire, they’re still usually doing great.

Thanks for the comment!
on February 29, 2008 at 4:05 pm3 Neil Duckett

The Japanese Salary Man

I`d never heard of the term Salary Man prior to coming to Japan, now i hear it and often refer to it all the time, infact i am one. A Salary Man basically describes a Japanese businessman aged between 25 and 50 living a very typical existance of l…
on March 1, 2008 at 12:22 am4 Marie

Thanks for the link, Neil!

Your post was entertaining
on May 14, 2008 at 4:08 pm5 Puja

Hi,

I am Puja Sahay,working in an Executive Search firm called Morgan McKinley , Singapore.

Looking for a Japanses Speaker.We have a role w.r.t. a Japanese Speaking Client manager (based in singapore).Do pass me any reference if you have any friends/relative/colleagus working insingapore in any bank ( Japanese Speaking ) .

Please mail me referrals / cv at psahay@morganmckinley.sg.
on May 14, 2008 at 4:24 pm6 SWATI

Hi,

Iam a recruiter. If you are or know japanese speaking project management individual with knowledge of peoplesoft or HRMS please send me your resume at ssriram@morganmckinley.sg

If you are a banking executive. looking out for opportunities you can send your resume to me.

Thanks
Swati
on May 24, 2008 at 2:01 am7 Marie

Hi Puja and Swati! Thanks for the info.

For those interested, please get in touch with either of the above persons. (I haven’t checked them out myself but I hope their agency is good )