Working in Japan Can Be Lonely

This time working remotely has let me reflect a little on why I sometimes feel lonely working in Japan.

Since moving to Tokyo in late 2014, I’ve been working in marketing at a Japanese agency. My immediate team has just under 20 people. Everyone is Japanese aside from myself and a couple of Taiwanese who are either based in Taipei or frequently in and out of the Tokyo office.

I’m generally fine working on my own.

When working in marketing, however, especially with regards to strategy and creative - things that I do - it’s best to be able to collectively brainstorm and have discussions where ideas are bounced off each other.

But I don’t really have that on an everyday basis. Nor am I able to fully take part in a lot of discussions or training events.

There are a couple main reasons why a separation exists.

1. My Japanese isn’t good enough.

Not only does my Japanese language capability provide an obstacle in my comprehension and ability to effectively communicate, my not being as culturally in tune as the Japanese people around me can sometimes put me on a different wavelength.

A recent example is when a colleague talked about an “online business card trading” service being amazing, especially during this time of remote work. I understand business card trading is a part of Japanese business culture so the service may be useful, but I consider it more to be a timid half-step forward. This is especially the case for me since while on a business trip to the CES convention in Las Vegas in 2015, I was about to give my business card to someone when he simply waved his phone over my neck pass and got my info. I remember clearly how I felt like an outdated fool. That was 5 years ago.

And of course there’s just a lack of commonality in the pop-culture we’re a part of for general conversations. Compare App Store, Apple Music or Netflix popularity rankings - Japan is often quite different from a lot of other countries. I wouldn’t expect it to be like my or another foreigner’s home countries obviously, but it does mean that there may be even less common ground to connect on.

2. Lack of “International”

In relation to non-Japanese residents living in Japan, this is a really general outline of society:

LEFT: You have typical Japanese people. The majority doesn’t speak English, have little or no international experience and aren’t used to working with non-Japanese.

RIGHT: You have the various foreign expats who may or may not speak some Japanese and are in Japan for a short-term.

MIDDLE: The internationals. They have experience both in Japan and out but some may not be truly native-level speakers anywhere, they likely speak a language that mixes English, Japanese and perhaps another language. Many of the capable ones will work in international companies.

I fall into the “international” category, probably leaning to the right because of my mediocre language skills. But because almost all of my colleagues and company itself falls firmly into the left side, it takes more effort for someone like me to try to include myself.

The truth is a lot of Japanese - and this is for any country, not just Japan - don’t have an interest in things foreign. My non-Japanese colleagues and I have been told in the past that there are some colleagues that we can’t work on international projects with because of a lack of interest and ability to comprehend things foreign. This wall and lack of workaround is an unfortunate reality that only impacts the foreigners.

I was reminded of this separation when the only email to unsubscribe from the English newsletter I sent out on behalf of our team was, in fact, our own team’s email address. That meant a colleague decided to unsubscribe from it.

To be honest, I thought that was fucked up considering it’s clearly sent from our own company. I know better than to unsubscribe from our Japanese or Chinese communications. Our non-Japanese communications are generally ignored, which can feel isolating, but to take action to stop it is another level.

But other than that, there’s no real maliciousness or purposeful segregation. It’s mostly whether or not someone wants to make an extra effort to connect. I was astounded when I took a look at how much time I spent on just trying to understand communications, time I could be spending on being productive in something else. That’s completely on me.

This feeling of separation and created walls, though, is to be expected unless a company is really striving to be diverse.

I think this is a challenge for any Japanese company attempting to be more international. How do you do that without straying from being “a Japanese company”? It’s a structural revision tied to core values that needs to be carefully planned out and purposefully followed. I don’t have an answer for that either, but I know it’s not just adding foreigners onto the payroll.

I’m lucky that, for the most part, I have some colleagues who I do connect with, others who are in that left side but do their best to do so, and that there’s no discrimination or anything.

Yes, it is often lonely and there is a separation that’s often felt. After all though, the choice of where to work, where to live and what to do is our choice and up to us.

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