Honjo
This is my team the
night before our presentation making final preparations. I am on the far left.
Afterward, the whole class got together and had a big party until about 3:00 am,
but our speeches went along without trouble later that morning. Mine was about
the future of E-Commerce in Japan. Overall, the weekend was both fun and
educational. The only sad thing was that most of the Japanese students in that
class were about to graduate, and were in the stressful process of entering the
workplace, so we never had the opportunity to hang out with them again. That is
another interesting aspect of Japanese culture. The group that you are currently
in is not only considered to be your colleagues, but your friends as well. That
is partly why Japanese are so careful about not offending anyone in their "in"
group. I had the interesting position of being a gaijin (foreigner), which
almost always puts you in the "out" group, but a Waseda student, which gained me
temporary access to the "in" group. My final verdict: it was fun for a year, but
I think many Westerners would feel somewhat smothered by the obligations of
being in a Japanese group for a long period. It is so common to hear stories
like that from either Western emoloyees in Japan, or their Japanese bosses. The
simple fact is, if you are not the kind of person who honestly puts the team's
interests on an at least even level of importance as your own, it would be a bad
idea to come work for a Japanese company. Being a former Marine, that came
naturally, but many of my friends felt differently.
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