Japan,The Island Nation

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Many people assume that Japanese are so humble and shy that they can’t say no for a favor or a business proposal. But it is not true, it is only that we don’t get it right.  So, where does the problem arise from.

First problem is Japanese are grown and taught to be a part of the group. And that means doing favors even though you are not very willing. But you do it anyway just keep the relationship going smoothly.

But when it comes to dealing with foreigner’s or business meetings is that they cannot or will not take a decision on the spot, so they will say, “we will look into it” [検討します]. And there comes the problem, English people think that is positive but only native Japanese people will understand where that was a positive or negative based on the subtle tone used. It is so easy to get lost in translation.

While it may be true that they don’t say no, but they do say no in many other ways which does not include a negative word.  Just like Hollywood’s, “We will call you back”. Only thing is you never get the call.

Foreigner’s applying for jobs in Japan have terrible time waiting. The company does not say yes or no on the same day and one has to wait for two to three weeks to get a yes or no.  If you are desperately looking for a job, don’t wait for answer from one company, keep going for interview.

I lost a month of my time, thinking I did well in the first interview and the call for the second Interview. But when I went for the third Interview, they gave a lame excuse which they could have told me in the second interview and they withdrew the offer.  I think, they just keep you on hold and keep looking for other people within the recruitment dead line they have.

So, play smart. A Japanese saying no is not direct but you need to know a certain subtleties in the language to correctly interpret.

Don’t get lost in translation.

As a foreigner, I found it very difficult to locate Greeting Cards shops like Archie’s or Hallmark shops in Japan. But Yes, they do send New Year Cards more religiously than we did , back in India. Later I discovered, that Greeting cards are available in Book shops and Post Cards. And there are many Printing services which take your photo and print it on the post card.

A New year card is sent to their families, if they live apart and to friends without fail. For businesses, it is customary to send new year cards and gifts to their business partners, expressing gratitude for business this year and wishing to continue the same business relationship to this year.

Japanese have an animal name for each year. 2007, was the “Wild Boar”. This year it is “Rat”. Rat Year is believed to good luck as Rats have the habit of accumulating (food)wealth. Many are excited about this year.

This part of the naming the year with animals is also prevalent in China. Chinese year names and Japanese year names are same. Because, it custom to Japan from China.

Japan Internationational Telephone dialling code is 81 often mentioned as +81.

Cell phone numbers in Japan most often have the numbers starting with 090.

Tokyo Number is 03,

Nagoya is 05

The recent IP phones which every ISP is providing now mostly begin with 050.

Can you believe that a old Japanese woman was cheated repeatedly by unknown person claiming to be her son. The unknown man calls her and pretends to be her son. He says that he has misused office expenses and he needs to return else he will be arrested. And each time he was successful in getting 10000USD.
He was successful in cheating her for around 80,000 USD in a span of 10 years.

This type of crime was on rising in recent years. Cheaters call somebody randomly claiming to be their sons or husbands. They ask them to transfer money immediately as they met with an accident and need to pay the lawyer or sometimes to the police to get out of the situation. Few innocent unsuspecting wifes and mothers , really transfer the money only to realize that they have been cheated by somebody, when theirs husbands or sons return home at night.

Does it happen anywhere in the world ? Share your thoughts.

Unlike english and european and many eastern languages which have a character set of 26 or 50, Japanese Language has more than 2000 characters , which can be divided in 3 subsystems, Katakana, Hirangana and Kanji. The latter is again is derivate of Chinese writing system. However Chinese does not have katakana [Read the rest of this entry…]

This site is nothing more than my opinionated views and understanding of Japanese culture. I write thisisjapan.net to satisfy my urge to express myself in lonely country like Japan. I intended to write about Japanese Life in General, I also intend to teach Japanese Language with emphasis on Technical Japanese for IT and I also I would write about interesting news, interesting japanese gadgets and robots and vending machines and anything interesting things like that. [Read the rest of this entry…]

Is Japanese Language easy, tough, difficult, impossible?. What does it take exactly to master Japanese Language. In how many days can you master Japanese Language. Is Katakana more important than Hiragana. Do you feel kanjis is like alien signs. [Read the rest of this entry…]