Working at home while my husband was on a Zoom call with his Japanese colleagues, I heard something strange. As I eavesdropped on my husband’s meeting, I didn’t hear him talk about business at all.

It was the kind of chitchat my mother would have with her neighbors. He even mentioned my publication during the call. Afterward, I asked him: “What was the meeting about?” He replied, “Regular report meeting.”

This made me recall my own days working at Japanese companies with non-stop chains of meetings that ended with no minutes or next-steps plans. Ceremonial gatherings also seemed not so impactful on business, during which the CEO painted one eye on a daruma doll to wish for a successful new year, and the other eye around the end of the year.

It is no wonder that Japan’s hourly labor productivity has been the lowest among G7 nations for 50 straight years.[1] Yet, many ‘salarymen’ seem somewhat happy to devote their lives to traditional Japanese companies.

Age and Up, or Up or Out

Generally speaking, the corporate ladder is one-way in Japan; everyone climbs it slowly and they never go down. Even if one messes up and causes a serious loss to their division, they will likely remain in the same position and get a raise just like everyone else next year. Disciplinary dismissal and demotion are options only for serious crimes and compliance violations.

Even today, approximately half of Japanese companies maintain lifetime employment.[2] With the seniority system (年功序列, nenkō joretsu) deeply entrenched, performance evaluations are usually not substantial enough to impact employees’ incomes. They’re more like periodic mental health checkups to keep employees on the right track.

It’s a double-edged sword; workers can take a fair amount of time to learn the company’s entire business, sometimes moving between jobs and divisions, and they become more loyal the longer they remain at the company. In other words, they acquire the expertise needed for that specific company rather than a particular skill, which makes it difficult for office workers in their 30s and 40s to change jobs as they get older. However, management benefits from their loyalty and wide range of expertise.

The downside is hard to ignore. No matter how much young employees outperform their seniors and colleagues, they don’t get compensated enough. They might be the first in their group to get promoted to manager, but soon, they’ll figure out quiet quitting is one of the most efficient ways to work for Japanese companies.

Those who are ambitious and can’t slow down tend to end up leaving long-established Japanese companies to seek more challenging opportunities at startups and foreign-owned companies in Japan. Those who are afraid of the pressure of ‘up or out workplaces stay at major Japanese companies, although that doesn’t mean they’re not as skilled.

Risks of Speaking Up at Meetings in Japan

If I wasn’t afraid of a backlash, I would say what Japanese companies prioritize first and foremost is the mood of their CEOs; neither customers nor shareholders come first. The happiness of the shachō matters above everything else. It’s a lifelong game to get the boss to smile as much as possible through painstaking teamwork.

What happens if a young employee musters the courage to speak up at a meeting and say: “80% of our users think the new feature which the CEO insisted on launching is so annoying that we should remove it.”

If this were a Japanese company, the employee would be treated not just as a troublemaker but as a traitor, even though they might be a hero at an American company. Unless the CEO is extremely mature, chances are the next meeting will be conducted without the renegade.

That’s because meetings at Japanese companies are generally opportunities to build consensus, not to brainstorm. If one wants to bring up a negative topic, the most peaceful way to do so is to discuss it with a direct manager or the meeting organizer beforehand, which is called nemawashi. Bombshells aren’t supposed to be dropped at meetings.

This save-the-CEO’s-face mindset reduces employees’ productivity. It’s not uncommon to have pre-meetings in advance of an important meeting to fill in your boss on key numbers and trends. Thanks to the seniority system, young employees need to serve their managers first irrespective of their capabilities.

As a result, many employees choose quit quitting across generations, which causes even lower productivity. Their last source of motivation is their retirement fund and employee pension after a lifetime of employment, or the 401k—the defined contribution pension plan, which is becoming popular among major Japanese companies to avoid pension shortfalls.

Final Thoughts

As long as corporate management sticks to the seniority system and traditional customs, Japan’s productivity won’t improve substantially. However, it is also true that Japanese employers are proud of far lower turnover rates than American companies—which relentlessly pursue productivity and efficiency—not only because labor unions are powerful in Japan.

Japanese people change their jobs less than one time throughout their career, 0.89 on average, while Americans change jobs an average of 10 times.[3] Close communication at Japanese companies encourages newbies to stay longer and raises loyalty among employees. Besides, they expect higher wages as they advance in the company.

I experienced this firsthand. During my Japanese company phase, I detested the team-first job allocations and all the meetings and gatherings in which I had to keep listening like a robot. But for those who prefer a stable salary and an organization where they can coast rather than a dynamic career, Japanese companies seemed a good fit.

If you can detach your feelings from the unrealistic game of making your boss smile, working for a Japanese company may be less stressful than an American company. At least the daruma dolls are quiet and patient enough to wait a year for their other eye to be filled in, and nobody minds my husband promoting Japonica at his office.