Kimiko Manes Special to The Daily Yomiuri
Many Japanese, after living in the United States for a while, start to get frustrated about how inflexible things are. At first, I too felt this way. Whether it was shopping or legal procedures, I wondered why things were so inflexible. When I went to local government offices for an inquiry, if the person I needed to see wasn't there, others in the office frequently could not help.
The person at the next desk might say, "He/she (person in charge) is attending a meeting right now--he/she'll be back in half an hour." But beyond that, they wouldn't help. If it was just a half an hour wait, I considered myself lucky.
Sometimes I would get a reply like, "Sorry, this week she's on vacation, she'll be back next week." That was irritating when I had taken time out of my day to come to the office. "Isn't there anyone who can help me?" I would ask. "Unfortunately, that's her job," came the reply.
No one else could do that person's job, and I couldn't help comparing this with Japan, where anyone in the same department would be trained to help with most inquiries.
Department store clerks or employees in the United States won't be able to help if the inquiries are outside their own section. "That's not my job, so you'll have to ask the manager." Even then, will they call the manager for me? Not necessarily. Americans are used to this culture, so they'll just ask, "Oh, really? So where can I find the manager?" And just like that, they will start walking around looking for the manager.
Once, when I got a product that was different from what I ordered at a store and wanted to exchange it, employees processed the paperwork, but wouldn't say sorry or apologize for the inconvenience. I started to get irritated by the whole ordeal, but in the United States, unless you can talk to the person who made the error, there will be no apology forthcoming.
From my perspective as a Japanese, that seems inflexible and unkind. But in a society where the individual is the central unit, it's common sense.
When I first moved to the United States, I thought that maybe clerks and entry-level employees were inept and could not be trusted with complicated tasks. Therefore, I concluded that these people were placed under the control of the managers. But recently, I've started to figure out the logic behind the system, and begun to understand the fundamental differences in thinking between the Japanese and the Americans.
In the United States, the whole society is founded on the premise that individuals are given rights and responsibilities (although sometimes I think the "responsibilities" part has fallen by the wayside these days). If some work is given to an individual, he or she is responsible for completing it, and that responsibility must be respected: meddling with their work is a professional violation. Therefore, even if you work with someone in the same office, unless you are specifically asked for help, or directed by a supervisor to help, that individual is solely responsible for that work.
Of course, if there is a mistake, it is that individual's responsibility, and if the errors are too numerous or grave, one can get fired. Not helping coworkers, then, can be an act of respect for their work, and it is also a way to deflect responsibility in case their work turns out to be shoddy. This is the line between oneself and someone else's responsibility; anything that is out of an individual's jurisdiction, then, becomes "none of my business." This seems to be how an individualistic society works.
However, if you are given a task or agree to do a specific job, you are free to finish your work however you see fit. For example, a businessperson might be given a limit, say, "up to 1 million dollars" to complete a deal. If it is within that area, that person has the power to make decisions. How favorable the negotiated deal is might help that businessperson's career, but unlike Japan, he or she will not have to talk with the main office or "honsha."
If it looks like the deal is going to be more than the predetermined 1 million dollars limit, then that person must say, "I do not have the authority to make that decision, so I would like to arrange for further negotiations in the future." It's pretty straightforward.
In regards to privacy, there is a similar distinction, and there's a line where people do not get involved with others. One might term it the American equivalent of the Japanese line between "uchi" and "soto."
On the other hand, according to one American who resided in Japan for a long time, "When a foreigner goes to city hall or a bank in Japan, workers at the windows are extremely polite but they have to consult with other coworkers or supervisors before they can process the paperwork or transaction. Because the individual isn't given any sort of responsibility, they have to consult each other to make decisions."
He's absolutely correct. Unless it pertains to something very specific, individuals cannot make decisions easily in the Japanese workplace. Work tends to be done by groups in Japan, and everyone can do each other's work. To facilitate this, routines are set up. To oblige the foreigner who visits the city office, city workers might have to ask their coworkers and their supervisors if the routine set up for Japanese people will be appropriate for the foreigner.
Unlike the United States, most people in an office can help that person, but the placement of responsibility is unclear. Therefore, the Japanese tend not to favor changing routines, and sometimes even think that the routines cannot be changed.
People unconsciously form a paradigm to view the world around them, and they tend to prefer the system with which they are most familiar. It has taken me a long time to understand American society, and I think that there are many Japanese in the United States who never seem to understand how things "work." Similarly, I assume that some foreigners in Japan also take time to understand and accept how things are carried out in Japan.
Manes resides in Philadelphia and teaches Japanese at Bucks and Montgomery county community colleges. She is the author of "Culture Shock of Mind." (Sunmark Publishing Company; in Japanese). maneskim@gmail.com.
(Mar. 21, 2006)
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