Over the years, Japan has garnered a lot of attraction from tourists and travelers wishing to work overseas. As more businesses become international and travel for work becomes the norm, many will find themselves with an opportunity to work in other countries.
But it may be easier said than done - especially if you find yourself at a disadvantage because of your background. But not all hope is lost; it's still very much possible to overcome this.
GR: What is the main obstacle over there?
Audrey: I think one of the main obstacles of starting or running a business, not just in Japan but anywhere, is to hire the right people who share in your vision. It was challenging to find those people who were passionate about your cause, but through trial and error, we were able to figure it out. Other obstacles are simply that as a foreign woman living in Japan, it’s difficult to sometimes break out of that “foreigner” stigma that sometimes surrounds a business negotiation or conversation.
Japanese work culture is very different from Western work cultures, and Japanese workers also work differently as well, so it was difficult to find a good balance at the start. However, the more you work and live here, the more you come to understand the subtle differences and pick up the context, which helps if you can also speak the language fluently.
GR: What changes (if any) have you seen over time in regard to gender from when you started working to now?
Audrey: I think it’s very difficult to be a CEO in Japan if you are a foreigner and a woman, but it’s not impossible as long as you can speak Japanese well and can navigate the sometimes tricky waters of Japanese work etiquette. Some of the things I’ve experienced in regard to gender is that oftentimes when I am in meetings with clients or other business partners, and I’m there with another male Japanese staff of mine, the client or business partner will always talk to the male staff instead of directly to me, even though I am the CEO and also speak Japanese fluently.
It was rather shocking at first, but since it repeatedly happened, I, unfortunately, kind of just got used to it. However, it depends on how old the client or business partner is that you are talking to and what type of company they are from, whether it’s a new company or an old and very established one. Younger Japanese companies and workers tend to not have bias when speaking with you, even if you are a foreigner and/or a woman, and I have high hopes that the stereotypes will eventually go away as the younger generation steps forth and creates a new path for international and domestic businesses to follow.
GR: Benefits of being a female business owner
Audrey: I wouldn’t say that there’s any difference in between female and a business owner versus just being a business owner in general. However, the benefits of being a business owner would be that you can decide how you want to run your own company. For me personally, I view all of my staff and their own happiness as my responsibility. If they’re not happy, then I didn’t do my job correctly, so I strive to always make sure that everyone has good working conditions, have fun at their job, and believe in our company’s cause.
The goal of Aitai Japan is to help connect fandom to Japan through the means of making anime and video game merchandise in Japan more accessible to those living abroad. As such, we hire people who share the same drive and goal as us and understand what we are trying to strive towards. It is rewarding to see our team continue to improve our services and grow together, as it is thanks to our constant tireless efforts that we were able to get this far in the first place. I don’t like to take credit for our successes since even though I am the business owner, it is our teams and the people within those teams that work hard to achieve our goals together.
Well, I guess another benefit of being a business owner, in general, is that I can decide my own work hours, but honestly I’m usually working 7 days a week. If I'm not working on actual business and financial-related work, then I'm making content for social media (Twitter, Instagram, etc.) and streaming video games or interacting with the community about various news and media that I’m interested in, with the occasional cosplay shoot with friends here and there for fun as well.
GR: Double standards?
Audrey: Some traditional Japanese companies have a tendency to hire “sparkler” workers who are usually young and attractive female workers to give the company a “nice face” (literally). However, the general expectation of some of those sparkler workers are that they will marry and eventually leave the company. This is a very stereotypical view of women in the workforce here in Japan, and the thing that might be shocking is that many of my Japanese friends still accept this notion as inevitable. I think it’s a rather double standard where you would hire someone for looks yet expect them to quit eventually whereas if it was a male worker, they probably would be working for the company well into retirement. The good thing is that this mindset is at least starting to change, and I hope new companies in Japan can help society break through that glass ceiling.
GR: How is life in Japan as a working woman?
Audrey: Living in Japan as a working woman and business owner is pretty much the same as it is elsewhere, minus the points I made in Question #3 that were quite shocking at first.
For my own experience though, the start-up company I joined in Tokyo was an international one where the boss was a foreigner as well, so I really enjoyed the company culture of my previous work and wanted to continue that atmosphere at my own company. I would say that my company's work culture is definitely more western than it is Japanese since the majority of our staff are foreigners as well (70% foreigner, 30% Japanese ratio, as stated earlier). Our current staff are from Japan as well as countries all around the world including the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Malaysia, Italy, Mexico, Peru, and more.
GR: Any other insight for girls (and guys) who want to understand international businesses over there?
Audrey: I personally think in order to do international business well in Japan and gain the trust of potential business partners or clients, you must either be fluent in Japanese or understand the work culture here very well. The Japanese language capabilities include being able to communicate fluently, reading Japanese contracts and business documents in their entirety, having a deep understanding of Japanese work culture, and creating strong relations with the people you do business with through empathy and reading the atmosphere. If you are not fluent in the language and fully understand the work culture, it becomes very difficult to create a strong connection because you will need to rely on an interpreter or a third party to help you get your point across. I would say JLPT N2 or even N1 level is a must to be able to successfully conduct business to form a good relationship with your business partners.
Japanese businesses and workers tend to open up to you if they are able to find a common point between you, a foreigner, and them, and that bond is usually formed when they are able to communicate with you smoothly and understand each other’s work culture and ethics. Understanding international business in Japan is something you just have to experience first hand before you truly can comprehend what the culture is like. It’s very different from western work culture as it can be much more rigid that you expect or are used to, and you should not expect them to change to accommodate you; more often than not, it’s unfortunately the other way around. It’s more about how you yourself can be flexible and adapt/assimilate to that business culture, which is the key to understanding it.
GR: Do you have any insight on non-international businesses? (In other words, is the work ethic is any different in accordance with gender?)
Audrey: I assume this question is referring to domestic businesses that do not handle international workers? Strictly Japanese companies are much more rigid in their work ethic where they expect their workers to stay until the boss leaves the building, working an insane amount of overtime, and stay loyal to the company and work there until retirement, etc. Women workers are usually paid less salary than their male counterparts, and they are even expected to take maternity leave, which is weird to me because what if the worker doesn’t want to have children? The idea of a nucleic family in Japan still runs really strong among society, but thankfully the younger generation are moving more and more away from that idea, albeit slowly.
I personally don’t believe in that kind of rigid work environment and hope that Japanese companies can eventually change that mindset. I think that a job should be fulfilling, and if you are able to find personal fulfillment from your job, then that’s the key to success. I hope for that mentality among all my staff and strive to be a leader who can provide that experience and opportunity to those who are looking for a job here in Japan in an international company.
It’s very different from western work culture as it can be much more rigid than you expect or are used to, and it can be difficult at times. However, as long as you can be flexible and adapt to the business culture, that will be the pivotal key to understanding it.
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