All Japan's STUPID Work Rules In 8 Minutes

So you want to work in Japan and you want

to live in Japan and you think it's great

and amazing and it's gonna be great.

Well, as someone who worked in Japan

before, I've got a few things to tell you,

things that I thought were pretty stupid

and annoying when I had to work in Japan

for a Japanese company. Before you start

applying for jobs, obviously you need to

get a resume or a CV. And in the UK, we

write up our CVs on a computer, type it up

and print it out, and it's pretty easy.

But in Japan, for some reason, even though

everyone thinks it's so high-tech, you

have to handwrite your CV in Japanese. So

even if you've been studying Japanese,

you might not have been studying how to

write kanji. And having to write your name

and all the kanji and everything like your

school history, your career history, all

in Japanese without making a single

mistake is actually pretty difficult and

pretty challenging to get the stroke order

100% perfect every time. And if you make a

mistake, you can't just cross it out or

put Tipp-Ex over it and write over it

because it looks like you you're being

lazy and it looks scruffy. If you go to an

interview with a resume or CV that has

scribbles and crossing outs on it, then

the employer is gonna look at it and

think, you're so lazy, you couldn't even

be bothered to write a new CV from the

start. They might not give you the job

just because you look like you're a lazy

person because you can't be bothered to

start again from scratch to make a nice

new CV. I had to buy about 20 papers

'cause you go to the convenience shop to

buy the form where you fill out your CV.

And I had to buy like 15 or 20 sheets of

these forms because I kept making

mistakes. I ended up giving up and I just

got my Japanese friend to write it for me.

I really don't understand why you can't

just type it up on a computer because

that'd be way more efficient and faster.

And I thought the Japanese people

appreciated efficiency and prioritized

efficiency over, I don't know, everything

else, but they actually prioritize not

looking lazy over anything else. And even

though I tried really hard to make my CV

look good, when I went for this job

interview at this restaurant, he really

nitpicked my CV and he was sitting there

saying, oh, this is not very good, and oh,

you made a mistake here. And then I wrote

on my CV that I passed level 2 of the

JLPT, Japanese Language Proficiency Test,

which is actually quite a hard and

difficult test to pass. If anyone studied

for level 2 or N2 of the JLPT, I think

you'll agree with me that it's quite a

difficult test to have to study for and

pass. But this Japanese guy who was

interviewing me looked at my CV and saw

that I only had level 2, and he was like,

oh, Oh, you only have level two JLPT.

That's it's not level one. That's just

kind of average, isn't it? And I was just

really annoyed because I studied so hard

to pass that damn test, and he's just

sitting there saying that this is kind of

crap. So anyway, I finally got a job after

several interviews at different places,

and one of the most annoying things on my

first day I had to do was learn how to say

"いらっしゃいませ" to all of the customers, which

is basically like a greeting to welcome

customers into the store, and you'll be

saying this. Hundreds or possibly even

thousands of times a day if you work in a

shop with customers. You have to say it

when they come in through the entrance and

the door opens, and then again when they

come up to the counter and you're serving

them. So for every customer that comes

into the shop, you're going to be saying

irasshaimase to them 2 times at least.

And on my first day, I was kind of shy and

nervous, and they had to train me to be

able to say irasshaimase in a loud,

confident voice because I was very shy and

I kept mumbling it like irasshaimase.

They kept saying, can you say it louder?

Can you say it louder? So for the first

day, I had nothing thing to do or learn

apart from learning how to say

irasshaimase. It's a really annoying part

of Japanese work culture, the whole

irasshaimase. I hate having to say it as

someone who works there, and I also hate

it as a customer going into like a big

electronics shop like Bic Camera or

Yodobashi Camera. You go in there and

there's like 20 staff just standing around

yelling irasshaimase at the top of their

lungs because if they don't, they'll get

told off and they'll, they'll be scolded

and They'll be asked, "Why aren't you

being more enthusiastic? Don't you like

working here? Do you want to quit?" And

then after saying "いらっしゃいませ," if you work

in a customer service kind of cashier kind

of job, you'll then have to ask about five

questions to every single customer. Like,

"Do you have a points card? Would you like

a plastic bag? Would you like your food

heated up? Would you like a spoon? Would

you like a tissue? Would you like this and

that?" It's so annoying having to remember

every single thing you have to ask every

customer. And one time I did get kind of

lazy. I didn't ask if he had a points

card. After I finish scanning his items

and giving him his change and receipts,

but I couldn't add his points after I

finished the transaction. If I wanted to

add his points to his card after he

whipped out his card at the end of the

transaction, I would have to go through

the long process of refunding his item,

getting the money back, and then scanning

the item again, and then asking for the

money again, and then giving him back his

change and receipt again, and having to

write down in the book why I refunded this

customer. So I was just lazy, and I said,

"Oh, sorry, it's too late." And he was

obviously very upset, and he just stood

there kind of staring at me in shock. I

had a long queue of customers waiting,

and I was stressed out, and I could not

actually remember how to do the refund

process because you had to press a bunch

of buttons on the cash register, which was

all in Japanese, by the way. So the other

weird thing about working in Japan is no

matter what time of the day it is, when

you're saying hello, you have to say

ohayou gozaimasu, which means good

morning. If you've learned any Japanese,

you'll know that means good morning, and

you'd be thinking Obviously, I would only

say that in the morning. But no, even if

it's midday or the afternoon or the middle

of the night, you would greet other

coworkers with ohayo gozaimasu. So when

you go to work and it's like middle of the

day, you still say ohayo gozaimasu. When

you finish your shift and it's like 2 PM

or 4 PM, then the other coworkers coming

in to start their shift, you you would say

to them ohayo gozaimasu. They would say

back to you ohayo gozaimasu. And it's just

kind of weird. Having to say good morning

to people when it's obviously not the

morning. Unpaid overtime is also something

that happens quite often in Japanese

companies. You'll be expected to do

overtime and not question whether you're

allowed to go home or skip the overtime.

You'll just have to do it, and most of the

time you won't actually get paid for doing

it, which is very frustrating. And the

whole concept of doing forced unpaid

overtime in a company is so dumb because

most of the time these people working

there who are doing overtime are not

actually doing anything productive or

useful. They're just doing overtime for

the sake of looking like they're working

really hard and they want to get a

promotion within the company. So for

example, someone higher up than you, like

your manager, wants to get a promotion or

a pay rise, so he decides to do overtime

so he looks like he's doing a lot of work

and he's working really hard and he's a

really good loyal worker and he wants to

get a promotion. So you won't be able to

go home because he's your superior, and if

he's doing overtime, that means you also

have to do overtime at his inferior.

Otherwise, that makes you look bad if you

just go home early whilst your superior is

still working really hard. Makes you look

like a bad employee. So what you get is a

bunch of salarymen or businessmen sitting

around in an office when it's like 7 PM,

8 PM, 9 PM doing overtime, and actually

they're probably just sitting there doing

nothing, just staring at the computer

screens, checking their messages,

checking their email, not really doing

much work. It's just so dumb because they

could be going home and spending time with

their families and spending time with

their wives or girlfriends, but they just

end up spending nearly all day at work,

and then they wonder why their wife or

girlfriend cheats on them. And then

there's also the drinking after work with

your superior or your boss or your

coworkers. You might have heard this

before. There's this culture in Japanese

work culture where if your superiors are

going for drinks with the company, with

other coworkers, and you're invited, you

can't really say no. You kind of have to

go with them, otherwise it makes you look

like a bad employee and you won't get

recommended for pay rises or promotions.

So you get dragged along to these drinking

sessions with people you probably don't

even like. And even though work is

finished, you'll be spending hours and

hours into the evening wasting whatever

you have left of the day sat in some

izakaya or some bar having to drink and do

chitchat with your boss or your manager.