Seattle JET Pre-Departure Orientation

I think it’s important to point out ESID with coworkers just as the quality and content of one’s work varies wildly depending on your CO. Coworkers tend to be influenced a lot by whatever the “work culture” of your CO is, so it’s important to learn what that culture is and embrace the local WA.

I’ve had two very different experiences in my offices so I guess I’ll detail those things here. I wish I knew some of this stuff beforehand.

At the art center, the work culture, because it was an artist residency, was very much “figure stuff out on your own and decide on your own what needs to be done.” This was all very confusing because I didn’t know what to do/ why to do things without training. In general Japanese coworkers tend to not be as straightforward as Western counterparts that people are used to. Instead of being given straight forward instructions for a task, you might be given some super vague explanation. Or just told to observe a situation and figure it out from there. 報・連・相 is really important and people should be prepared to ask a lot of follow up questions and go through trial and error. Things won’t be explained to you, so it’ll be up to you to ask “is this ok?” until you get it right. To tend to gain respect by showing a willingness to learn and self improve.

At city hall people won’t point out blatant mistakes until too late. Always keep your eyes peeled for how others around you are behaving and try to mimic their behavior. Sometimes you’ll think everything’s chill because nothing has been pointed out to you, but people are secretly talking about you doing something weird/not ok behind your back because they’re non-confrontational. Try to shadow how people talk with guests or on the phone to learn what’s acceptable for your CO. Ask lots of questions because the TATEMAE is there and you might not know what’s ok and what’s not unless you straight up ask.

Not all Japanese people are polite hue. You might unfortunately get placed somewhere where people are straight up rude and no, your ears are not deceiving you. You CAN do something about it. You might get bullied from reporting someone or taking things up the chain of command, but those are totally options for you and you don’t have to put up with being disrespected.

You can set the parameters for your relationships with others. If you are going to be overly stiff and polite with coworkers, they will be stiff to you in return. I’ve noticed that the more I’m willing to be bubbly and honest with people, the more I get of the same treatment in return when people realize they’re comfortable around you. It makes work a lot smoother when you break down a barrier of formalities.

Don’t overly bother people with questions about Japanese, but people do like it when you ask for what phrases are more formal, how to write an excellent email/letter/report/etc., or ask if you can listen to how they deal with phone or IRL correspondence. It shows people that you are eager to improve yourself and definitely builds up trust.

I second what dee said about the Nihongo/hashi jouzu thing, although my approach is a little different* . It's better to challenge their stereotypes (without being a total geoduck about it) and educate them rather than get annoyed about it ^^;; Japan doesn't really seem to learn much more than stereotypes about other countries so they just...aren't aware of a lot of things about the wider world, which sure it can be frustrating at times, but it's not entirely their fault that they don't get taught about that stuff or that the media here mostly focuses on Japan ^^;;
_{*I normally chuckle and tell them like 'we do have chopsticks and Japanese food etc. in my country too ^^;; ' or for the Nihongo jouzu, I'm like 'well I did study it as my major at uni and do a year abroad in Japan'}