5 Most Annoying OUTDATED Business Rules in Japan

You might know that Japan is a country with quite a lot of rules and manners for everything we do. For example, there are many table manners when you eat food, rules for bathing at onsen hot springs, or things you must keep in mind when you visit someone’s house. This can be also said for many workplaces in Japan too. Although I understand that these traditions are originally meant to respect and care for others, some of them are just simply outdated and are very inefficient.

So today, as a man who has worked in three Japanese companies before, I will introduce five most tiresome business rules that are still present in most workplaces in Japan. This video is especially recommended to those who are willing to work in Japan someday. I will be counting down the five outdated rules, so I hope you can check them all out! If you have similar rules in your country too, please let me know in the comments below.

At the latter half of the video, I will talk about why Japan still has these outdated rules, and what you can do to avoid companies that forces the employees to obey them. However, please understand that not all companies in Japan are like this, and it is likely that these rules will not be forced for foreign workers.

[Time codes]
0:00 Let's START!
2:07 No.5 Meeting in person
4:35 No.4 Stamps & paper contracts
7:50 No.3 Upper & lower seats
12:53 No.2 Business cards
16:03 No.1 Working long hours is a virtue
18:59 3 reasons why these things happen
27:21 How to avoid these things
29:49 Today’s conclusion
32:47 “Omake” talk

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[icepicjoey]

This is why in anime the parents are never home.

[priximus]

-young people are forced to work and basically live at their workplace -
"WHY ARENT THE YOUNG HAVING CHILDREN!?"

[reveranttangent]

The scariest ghost story I've ever heard was of someone who died and continued to go to work for 50 years.

[Suriel]

"Are we ever going to be attacked by bandits during a business meeting?"
Yes, quite often. But they are already inside the room.

[marcelsusanto]

I once worked as an engineer in Singapore. One of the older manager explained to me the difference between Germany and Japan regarding long working hours.
He explained that Japanese boss would compliment his employee for every overtime. Only with overtime you can climb the corporate ladder in Japanese company. Contrary to Japan, German bosses think employees who do overtime are inefficient people who can't manage their time and resource.
The funny thing was when I asked him "What about Singaporeans?"
"Singaporeans are the worst. Singaporean boss will scold you whenever you don't do overtime. On the other hand, they never compliment you. Please forget about climbing the corporate ladder using overtime, it is just the minimum standard for them!"

[berendmuller]

i will honestly never forget my period of 5 years working in japan. about 30% of my time in the office was spent playing games or solving sudokus on my computer, since i'd be done with my actual assignments but the rest wasn't finished yet. you couldn't even assist colleagues in your department or team since they weren't 'your' assignments. some days i'd just be in the break room all day or chilling with the colleagues in the business archives just because i'd hit my weekly quota and be bored to death. it's honestly insane to me how a lot of japanese businesses claim to be team oriented by being completely non-team oriented at all.

[dolphinboi-playmonsterranc]

Lack of sleep leads to incompetance.

Incompetance means low productivity.

Low productivity means no work done.

[Firebreath]

I really like how honest you are about all of these issues. It seems like a lot of people aren't willing to talk about them, but they're so important, so I respect you a lot for doing that!

[dhemong]

i love the funny cartoon illustration, the old man riding the rickshaw and the young eating the grass is my favorite.

[szentineltorony]

Some of these things are common in Hungary too, so if someone claims that "WE ARE A COMPANY WHICH PREFERS TRADITIONAL HUNGARIAN VALUES", than you need to do one thing: RUN!

[jakobfredriksson]

This explains a lot why people felt unease while me and my friend were travelling around in Japan some years ago. We tried take a spot far from the entrance in elevators just because *we didn't want to be in the way* for hard working Japanese. All we tried to do was to *show them respect* but after watching this I finally understand why it backfired so hard =)

[Nefferduat]

#5 is so frustratingly common here in canada too; the number of times i have complained "this could have been an email" after a meeting to coworkers is almost exactly the same number of times ive been dragged out of work for a meeting.

[sylvia.s.s.]

Paper contracts... it is really ridiculous. When some contractors who didn't have an office came to work in my country and contracted me as a interpreter/secretary for the trips they would be making here, they came and gave me the printed contract thinking that I would sign without asking for any changes even when it was the first time I could read it, and I needed some changes to be made, of course, They were really upset that the paper contract was going back without my signature and that I told them that I would send them the pdf file when they made the corrections.

[michelleg]

It's basically slave labor, and extremely stressful. I can see why no person wants or even has time for kids! 😬

[jimhawkins]

So when the samurai attacked and the person nearest the door got taken out first. The person furthest away was trapped in the corner with the exit unreachable and still killed. Strategy at its finest.

[Truelat]

Meeting face-to-face is also important in Mexico. When you meet a client and after some drinks the client says something like "ok you brainwashed me" it means you got the account.

[ludwigwittgenstein]

Younger people should be able to open their own business, with new “rules” that actually work

[rolandgdean]

As to seating. I never sit with my back to the door when I eat out in public...it makes me uneasy and vulnerable to do so.

[bryanmerel]

"Customs and Traditions are basically Peer Pressure from the Grave"

I taught those words are rude, now i kinda agree..