Are you VANILLA? or PISTACHIO?

Let me talk about my blog title (be the pistachio) a little bit before I continue to write other Japanese business posts.

You will probably think that I am a big fan of pistachio and yes, I love them. But I WANT TO BE the pistachio, and that is a little bit different story.

My Love for Pistachio
I like the taste of any kind of nuts, but pistachio is something special. For me, pistachio is sweeter and more flavorful than other nuts. Also the color of green is out standing among other brown nuts. The size of whole nut is tiny and it makes pistachio very precious, too. I have liked pistachio from when I was little, but I started to love them after traveling to Italy. I won't forget when I had pistachio gelato in Italy. I cannot help falling love with the rich flavorful taste.

Whenever I go, if I find pistachio flavor food or drinks, I started to order them.

So, these are the reasons why I love pistachio. Again, I WANT TO BE THE PISTACHIO. What does it mean?

Pistachio fascinates people
"How does the world see you" is a great book in terms of branding ourselves. In the book, the author talks about "Are you Vanilla? or Pistachio?" and I really liked the part.

According to the author, vanilla ice cream appeals to the maximum number of people with the minimum whining. On the other hand, pistachio ice cream is a distinct and polarizing choice. However, the people who like pistachio usually re-e-e-a-lly love it. People will drive across town for it, they'll pay more for it, they'll talk about it and remember it. Vanilla ice cream is a commodity and pistachio ice cream is a minority. But pistachio engages the minority very well. Dell is vanilla, and Apple is pistachio. Ford Taurus is vanilla, and Fiat 500 is pistachio. If you are not creating a negative response from somebody, you're probably not very fascinating to anybody.

I used to love pistachio because of its taste, color, and preciousness. However, this book gave me another cool aspects of pistachio. What I attract most is always unique things and interesting people. If I choose, I choose extraordinary things and experiences, not ordinary ones. This is they reason why I want to be the pistachio.

"Settai" -a wired Japanese business culture

Let's study some Japanese words today. "Omotenashi" and "Settai", how do they sound like to you?

"Omotenashi" is a Japanese way of hospitality and customer service. The word became popular when Japan got the right to hold 2020 olympic game. Japan used this word to Olympic committees to explain how Japan can give great hospitality to the sports players and audience from all over the world. One of the famous Japanese news caster gave a presentation to the committees (actually she is a half French half Japanese, so she gave the presentation in French) and used this word with hand gestures. A lot of Japanese imitated the gesture and of course joked about it.

Omotenashi is one of the beautiful aspects of Japanese culture. However, it can be transformed into a wired thing and one of the example is "Settai" culture. If I translate "Settai" into English, I would say "To make customers feel that they are treated as a king or queen. Usually hosting company spend tons of money for food and other activities. In other words, wast of money." This "Settai" culture is one of the keys to get business in Japan. Let me explain a little bit more.

1) Normal Settai: Restaurant + Kyabakura (girls bar)

Even in America, there is a customer dinner. However, Japanese Settai need much longer time and cost a lot. Usually people go to a izakaya style restaurant (if it is an important dinner, people go to fancy restaurant such as Kobe beef steak house or traditional Japanese food) and move to Kyabakura after that. Kyabakura is like a girls bar but it is super expensive bar. One customer can get one girl to serve alcohol for them and it costs $70-100 per hour per person (depend on the quality and location of the bar). Also, people can sing a song like a Karaoke bar. The relationship between Japanese salarymen and Kyabakura is so deep, so I need another blog post for this.

2) Golf Settai

Another popular settai is playing golf with customers. I used to work as a sales rep and the first big spending after I joined the company was golf club set. My senior told me golf set is one of the must-have tool for sales rep in the Japanese business. American business people also play golf with customers, but it is more relaxed atmosphere. On the contrary, a lot of Japanese sales people don't like playing golf with customers. That is because sales people have to "omotenashi" to their customers. They need to pay attention that if their customers feel happy and satisfied. This is more like a server or waiter.

3) Business travel Settai
If the business involved with a travel, sales people become "travel agency." They ask customers where they want to visit and take them the location. For example, I used to work at Japanese company and they had a manufacture company in Himeji. When our customer want to visit the plant, we take them to see Himeji castle and took them to a restaurant where they could eat famous food there.

4) Other Settai
If the company has a sports team, participating it can be another settai. My old colleagues played soccer with customers and also went to see the game on weekend.

Building a good relationship with customers are very important. However, Japanese business people spend too much money for this settai and I think this is wast of money. If this settai culture is absolutely needed for the business success in Japan, I don't expect the Japanese growth in the future. Japanese people should rethink how to spend their money more wisely.

Do Japanese business people work too much?

When I was reading a Japanese business news paper the other day, I found an interesting article about the way Japanese people work. According to the article, there are two different types of business people in Japan. One is real Bari-bari people, and the other is fake Bari-bari people. Let me explain the concept of bari-bari first.

In Japanese language, we use onomatopoeia a lot. For example, Doki-doki is the sound of the heart beat, Waku-waku is excitement, Shiku-shiku is when we cry, Gera-gera is when we laugh very hard and a lot more. Bari-bari describes the situation of "doing something very hard". Therefore, in the news article, Bari-bari people means business people who work extremely hard.

If I look back my experience working in Japan, I've seen both Bari-bari people, real one and fake one. I worked for Automotive industry and that was on of the oldest and busiest industries in Japan, so the majority of people who I worked with were real Bari-bari people. They usually worked until midnight (literary midnight like 12 am. I've worked at the office until 4 am.) Even if I had a business dinner with my customer, I went back to the office after the dinner if I needed.

Now I'm doing an internship in a company located in Santa Clara, CA and I don't see any Bari-bari people like in Japan. People at the company usually go back home before 6 pm and if they work until 8 or 9 pm it is "long hour work." I would say, start ups are regarded as Bari-bari though. However, there is a difference between start ups here and traditional Japanese companies. People at start ups work hard because they have to survive and they have a passion. On the other hand, people at Japanese companies work hard because they have royalty and pride. (I will talk about this topic another time!)

According to Laura Bridgestock, who reported on Trends in International Student Mobility, "Many Asian nations have a reputation for particularly long working hours." "East Asian economies such as Singapore and Hong Kong all come out well avobe the US in average hours worked per year, and in countries such as South Korea and Japan government initiatives have been introduced over the past decade to try and bring working hours down in order to improve employee health and quality of life."

"Life work balance" is one of the well known expressions in Japan nowadays. Many companies try to change the current situation. However, long working hours are often still the norm. I don't blame Bari-bari Japanese because they made what we are today. However, I feel we should focus more on business people's happiness and wellness. That is one of the keys to get back a strong energetic Japan like in the past.

Globalization and Japanese

Whenever I talk with my American friends or coworkers who have been to Japan before, I hear two different opinions. Some people say that they didn't have any problem to stay in Japan because Japanese people spoke good English, and others say that they were surprised that a lot of Japanese could not speak English. Which is the truth?

It is true that more and more Japanese people focus on English in nowadays and the number of people who can speak English in Japan is increasing. However, if I compare Japan with other Asian countries, I feel that the revel and speed of globalization in Japan is way behind.

My Chinese and Korean friends told me that it is essential to have an experience studying abroad if they want to get a good job in their own countries. On the other hand, having a good English can be an advantage but it is not necessity in Japan. We are all Asians, but why does this happen?

I have an English teacher's license for junior high and high school in Japan and also have an certificate of J-SHINE program which allows people who passed the test to teach English at elementary schools. Also, I studied English at Florida State University as an exchange student when I was in my University and met a lot of international students from all over the world and I talked about English education with them. Through my experiences, I would like to give you some insights about the real situation of Japan in terms of English.

I categorized problems into 3 groups below.

1) Japanese Education

It has been said for long time that Japanese can read and write English pretty well but their speaking ability is not great. I would say this is true and this is related to a Japanese education system.

Japanese start to learn English from junior high to University. That means average Japanese have been studying English for 10 years. However, as I mentioned earlier, Japanese schools focus on grammar a lot for passing exams and less focus on speaking. A lot of teachers cannot speak good English, so it is obvious that students cannot neither.

There are some schools which realize the importance of speaking and change this old education system, however, the movement is still small. I think it is inevitable for Japan to change this too much grammar focused education system if we want to join global countries.


2) Japan is too comfortable

There is a shocking fact about young Japanese people. According to some newspaper articles, the number of young Japanese people who are interested in going abroad is decreasing! I cannot believe this because I was one of the people who really really wanted to go abroad and tried to get every kind possibilities. I joined an university program to stay in Australia for one month when I was first year in my university and volunteered an cultural exchange program and went to Dover city when I was second year of my university. I studied very hard to get the position as an exchange student and actually I got the chance. I visited my friend in Taiwan and Italy.

According to these articles, young Japanese feel so comfortable to live in Japan and cannot find the reasons why they need to go abroad. They can eat variety of foods, experience great service, and top of that, no need to take a risk of expose themselves to somewhere can be dangerous for them.

I experienced so much great things through my experiences visiting foreign countries. Also, I could more appreciate about my country after I visited other countries. I just feel that young people are just loose their greatest chance to see the amazingly beautiful places all over the world, meet wonderful people from different background, and grow themselves with global readers outside of Japan.


3) Japanese culture

As one of the features of an island, the number of foreigners are few in Japan. Japanese interact mainly with pure-Japanese, so they don't know how to communicate people who have different culture. This also made them being comfortable to be "one of them" and not standing out. Also, we put value in politeness, so we think that saying our opinion in public might destroy the peaceful atmosphere. (This is why Japanese people are quiet at the meeting.)

In addition, Japanese have been taught that team work is very important. Therefore, we try to help each other. We think that coworkers are like family, so we help each other even in a business situation and that is why Japanese still keep the hierarchy. On the other hand, a lot of countries compete each other to get the good position. These culture causes a huge gap between global companies and Japanese companies. I love Japan and I think we need to keep our beautiful culture. However, we also need to change our attitude so that we don't loose the relationship with other countries.


More and more Japanese people start to shift to globalization, but we needs to push ourselves harder. After I moved to America, I started to realize that Japanese people have high potentials to compete with global readers. Not only we have great technologies, but also we are very precise, responsible, trustworthy, and hard working. If we realize the importance of globalization and take an action to change current situations, how the world sees us would be totally different. I believe that it is going to happen in the future and I would like to be the part of the change.

The important things in Japanese business

Even though I have an experience working for just one Japanese company, the company was one of the oldest and biggest companies in Japan, so I think that my opinion is not too far from the reality of Japanese business. Also, I've read one of the most well-know Japanese business newspaper (nikkei) everyday and joined a lot of business seminars and networking events in Tokyo, so I believe that I have some kind of standard concept of Japanese business culture.

What Japanese business values?

As you may already know, politeness is a key word in Japanese culture and it is same in the Japanese business world. Politeness include greeting, punctuality, caring others, showing appreciation and any kind of preparation (We call this "Omotenashi" in Japanese). Here is some examples of them through my experiences. This is a common sense of "sales person" in Japan.

Some example of "politeness" in Japanese business culture

-When a Japanese business person meet a new customer, it is better to introduce themselves first. (This include changing business cards. Lower position or sales person should pass their business cards first. )

-Being on time is one of the basic Japanese business manners. When a Japanese sales person have an appointment, they should be at the meeting place at lease 5 minutes earlier. (I was usually at a meeting place 15-20 minutes earlier if I was meeting my customers.)

-Japanese sales people prepare a meeting very well. The flow of a meeting is like this;
   Before the meeting
       Send an email to people who are involved with the meeting (The purpose of the meeting, who need to be in the meeting, when we plan to have meeting, where/how we want to have the meeting, what kind of data/paper we need to prepare, etc)

   At the meeting

•        Introduce the attendees
•        Clear the goal of the meeting and when we finish the meeting
•        After the discussion, double check the conclusion and next action including the due date

       *Administrator or secretory will bring tea or coffee 10-15 minutes after the meeting started.

   After the meeting
     We send an email attached with a minutes of the meeting. We should not forget to include our appreciation for the people who attend the meeting

-We usually have a welcome/farewell party whenever new person join the group. (Most of the occasion, company will pay money for the party.)

-The person who are welcomed/farewelled should send a thank you email to all of the participants.

There are another examples of Japanese sales person beside politeness.

-It's important to have a good relationship with bosses. One of the reasons is because Japanese people respect elderly people, but main reason is because it is important to get promoted. A lot of companies in Japan still rely on the hierarchy, so having a good relationship with your boss is the key to success your career.

-A lot of Japanese sales people think that drinking alcohol together is one of the best ways to know each other. If you want to be liked your boss, it's better not to deny their drinking offer.

-Even though the situation is getting better, a lot of Japanese sales people still work until late at night. Japanese sales people think that working until late at night is one of the ways to show their effort and contribution to the company. (and I hated this idea.)


I didn't like old Japanese hierarchy society when I worked in Japan because I felt like I was just a replaceable parts of the company and there were very few motivated people around me. However, I can say that Japanese people are one of the most hard working and trust worthy people in the world. I really wish the day will come when Japanese realize the important of employees' happiness.

What's this blog about?

As I mentioned in my first post, I have worked in one of the biggest Japanese electric companies in Japan for 4 years. Through the experience, I have some opinions about Japanese business culture so I want to share it in this blog. Also, I currently work for a semiconductor companies in Silicone Valley, so I want to compare American business culture and Japanese one. In addition, I have worked for one of the IT startups in San Francisco before I moved to Silicone Valley for 5 months as another intern, so I'm excited to talk about it, too.

I'm happy if I could give you some tips to understand Japanese business culture through my blog posts!

*Things that I want to talk about so far...

• The important things in Japanese business
• Globalization and Japanese
• Do Japanese business people work too much?
• Wired Japanese business culture of "Settai"
• Business women in Japan
• Japanese companies VS Startups in SF (difference of speed, opportunities of learning, networking etc)
• Japanese business words to remember 

etc

Pursuing my dream

I'm sitting on my chair and writing this blog at a nice cozy home at Mountain View, CA. I was in Japan 5 months ago and never thought that I would have lived here in Mountain View at that time. I was a sale person of one of the biggest electric companies in Japan. I had a decent salary and social status. A lot of people around me told me that my life is going great. Only me (and maybe some other coworkers in my company) was the person who was not happy about the current situation. I had a dream and I felt that I couldn't make that happen in the company.

My dream was working abroad with people who have different background. The reason why I wanted to work in abroad was related to my experience as an exchange student in Florida State University. Even though I have visited America twice for couple of weeks and Australia for one month before, it was my first actual experience living in other country outside of Japan. Everything looked very excited to my eyes and I had a great time there for ten months. I met great people there and fell in love with American culture. I didn't want to go back to Japan and decided to go back to America or another country after I graduated my university. I wanted to see the world more.

I started a job hunting after I came back to Japan and got a job at the electric company. The HR people were very thoughtful and nice people, and they told me that there would be a tons of chances to work in abroad. Therefore, I decided to join the company. I was assigned to Automotive equipment division and I became a sales representative. Even though I was only female at the sales office and there were tons of extra work hours, I tried my best to get a chance to work in abroad. Every year, I kept saying to my bosses that I wanted to work in abroad. I knew that it would be difficult for unexperienced employee like me to work in abroad especially in a big company, so I have just worked hard hoping someday I can get a chance. After working in the company for 4 years, I thought I had waited enough time, so asked my boss "When can I go abroad? " and he said "If you wait for a couple of more years, I will let you send to abroad." I asked him again "When exactly can I go? Two years later? or three years?" and he said, with unconfident voice "I cannot promise when, but I will try to make it happen."

This is why I quit my job. I didn't want to wait for uncertain "couple of more years". I have learned a lot of things through the company and I do appreciate them, but that was not the job I wanted to do for rest of life. I live my life once, so I thought I should pursue my dream. If a company doesn't let me go abroad, I should make it happen by myself. If I have something I want to do, I should follow the passion even though that is not easy way.

I'm doing an internship at one of the semiconductor companies in Silicone Valley right now. I'm very happy that I made this decision. I'm learning a lot of things through my American boss. Of course there are up and down everyday, but I'm so grateful for my current life because I'm doing something that I have been wanted so bad. The most scary moment is always before we start something new. We should not stop moving when we meet the scary moment because the greatest things that you have never experienced before might be waiting for you.