Japan's Top Business Interviews Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Nikolaus Boltze is currently the country representative for Thyssenkrupp in Japan. Mr. Boltze first came to Japan in 1972 as a child, while his father was working with the German embassy and was posted to Japan. He attended the German school which was at that time in Ōmori and since that time he has a certain soft spot for Japan. They returned to Japan in the early 80's and he finished his graduation from high school at the German School in Japan. He returned to Germany for his University in Engineering and military service.

When Mr. Boltze was applying for jobs after university, he came across a Japanese company starting its operations in Europe called Daifuku. The job description listed a variety of initatives, from setting up an office, finding additional staff, reaching out first to new customers in Germany, transferring the products, which had an excellent Japanese design, but make them fit for the European market and so on. This role got him excited as a young engineer without any previous experience as it was much more than just designing the rear back wheel for a Mercedes Benz, which would be the typical start position for a young engineer. He stayed in this role for 5 years and then later took a position at an automotive supplier called Bayer based out Stuttgart and they were looking for a Project Manager. He took this role and spent a year developing a strategy for entering the Japanese market based in Stuttgart. He presented this to the board, and they came back to him and asked him if he was willing to implement his own strategy and go work from Japan. So, he returned to Japan and started looking for an office and a secretary to start Bayer's work in Japan. He was in this role for about 6 years until 2005.

Mr. Boltze says they have not been too successful in hiring new graduates in Japan. Typically, new graduates in Japan are focused on working for Japanese firms and they also may have some family pressure to work for well-known Japanese companies. They feel they have better success with mid-career employees who have returned to Japan after working in the US, Europe, or Southeast Asia and they don't feel well suited to the Japanese environment. Mr. Boltze says that female engineers are another of their hiring strengths. Hiring female engineers has been good for the company because a lot of the time women feel more comfortable and less restricted at a global company rather than a Japanese one, Mr. Boltze also says they don't discriminate based on gender so women may feel more at ease at Thyssenkrupp. Another segment of people they hire are people from other Asian countries such as Korea, Taiwan or Malaysia who have a degree from Japan and are rather well versed with the culture but for work, they may prefer to work for an international firm.

Advice that Mr. Boltze would give to someone new to Japan who is not familiar with the culture would be to understand that Japan is a G7 nation and if you are bringing a novel idea or a new way of doing something, chances are there may already be a Japanese way or a local firm doing this, and it is harder to penetrate that. Ensuring that firms understand that Japan is a unique island nation and there is likely a local way of doing the thing that you are wanting to do in Japan is beneficial. Learning Japanese isn't going to hurt but on the other side communication is very important. Japanese as a language is vague and not very precise and sometimes communicating in German or English can be more direct, setting clear goals and giving directions to staff may be more beneficial in German or English.

Joe Latteri is currently the Managing Director for Customer Success with Meltwater Japan. Meltwater is a global company and originally started in Oslo, Norway. Meltwater was founded by a tech entrepreneur named Jorn Lyseggen, who currently oversees the global board. They are a global leader in media intelligence and social media analytics. They work with close to 30,000 companies around the world including 800 clients and about 50 employees in Japan. Mr. Latteri's history was quite unique and with Japan started when he was 6 years old, his parents encouraged him to pick a language and he opted to do a Japanese immersion program in elementary school. Mr. Latteri went to an English-speaking Middle School, but he tried to keep up his Japanese and although he was a business major, he took a minor in Japanese at University to keep up with some of his language skills. His plan was to work in the US and was hired in Sales at Meltwater in the US, but he started working in London and then later moved to Singapore and he had more success in Singapore and that was when he started to research Japan and he spoke Japanese. Mr. Latteri launched the team in Japan in 2008 with 3 other team members. Initially he thought he would be in Japan for a year or two but there was a lot of potential in Japan, so he kept getting drawn back to Japan.

Mr. Latteri says that something that drives engagement is finding the best fit and that would mean finding someone who has the same core values that the company has. Fun is the first core value of Meltwater Japan. He says that he believes that is a very important core value, fun can mean going to Karaoke after work or it can mean having a pleasant customer meeting and he emphasizes that since the employees spend so much time at work, they need to be having fun while they are doing it. Enjoying the personal development that comes from work, the thrill of doing the job or trying to be the very best also provides enjoyment and satisfaction for some people.

Advice for someone that is new to Japan from overseas is to try and understand the team and be patient. Mr. Latteri says to try and understand the staff and the influencers within the team. Mr. Latteri says that usual way of doing things is engrained into people's way of doing things and the staff really needs to understand that you are here for a long time with them. He also suggests being humble and be open. He suggests being humble and open to new ideas, hear their staff out and try and implement their ideas. Approaching the staff as people is always a good approach and embrace Japanese culture. People pay close attention to little things, if you are open to learning about Japan, if you attempt to speak and learn the language, if you attempt to eat using chopsticks, these things are noticed and will go a long way. Embracing Japan will get you a more positive response as the people think you are open to learning about Japan and you like Japan and people are more willing to trust and like you. If you are coming to Japan, it is important to be genuine and work to build that trust. If you really want to have long-term success, being genuine and consistent builds a lot more integrity and trust and builds stronger relationship. Owning your mistakes and being humble are core tenants of leadership, especially in Japan.

Meghan Barstow currently is the President at Edelman Japan. Ms. Barstow is originally from Alaska and Japan and Alaska were strongly connected through the fishing industry and the airline industry, as many international flights land in Anchorage. The Japanese economy was booming when she was in high school, so she decided Japan was a good place to be.

Ms. Barstow first came to Japan exactly 30 years ago which was the obvious step as she majored in English Literature with a minor in Japan. She first came to Japan as a third-year university student, she studied at Osaka from Kansai Gaidai for her year abroad. Prior to university, she studied at a school in Middlebury with an immersive Japanese program prior to coming to Japan in her third year of university. She completed her degree back in the US before returning to Japan through the JET program. She was in Japan in a very rural area in Japan for 3 years for the JET program, she was an ALT teaching English for 2 years and the last year as a CIR working for the local government. She was the only ALT in that region, so it was a wondering immersive experience for her. After completing the JET program, she returned to Seattle in the US, and she again wanted to use her Japanese skills and she worked for Kyoga prefecture in the Business and Culture centre and later she also taught Japanese at a local public high school filling in for someone on maternity leave. After this she retuned to Japan again for her third round in Japan working as an editor creating business textbooks and English textbooks at Time Life.

At this time, she had many friends that were expats, and they were doing communications for automobile companies such as Mercedes and Reno and it sounded like many of the skills Ms. Barstow had such as meeting people, writing, editing, communicating but also strategizing. This led her to apply for a job in an English Language newspaper and that's where her journey in PR started.

It can be hard to earn the trust of colleagues and especially as a foreigner coming in during COVID Ms. Barstow found this to be quite difficult in Japan. Ms. Barstow feels that Edelman is doing very well with regards to having female leadership and equity in the firm. Traditionally, you'll find that more women are present at the junior levels and as you go higher up, there are less and less women. At Edelman, Ms. Barstow says that there are a lot of strong female leaders, and she has felt very supported by the female leadership at Edelman.

Ms. Barstow has found that Edelman is very creative in many ways, the team often call themselves entrepreneurial, by constantly thinking of new products, new evolved techniques, and new and creative ways to do things. She feels the staff is constantly learning and innovating. For creativity and one of their passions is to be constantly curious as every day is new, and she finds herself learning every single day. She feels to be creative; employees need to given freedom and time to become creative. At work, they have various working groups in various topics, such as an ESG group and an Olympic working group. Staff join these working groups based on their area of interest, for example someone interested in the environment, might join the ESG working group.

Advice that Ms. Barstow would give to someone coming into Japan would be that listening is very important and asking for feedback and spending time 1-on-1 with the staff. Building trust and understanding that change takes more time in Japan. She says that Japan seems contradictory to her that though Japan tends to seem a hierarchical country but in other ways it can be a country that is very bottom-up, so striking that balance is hard and navigating that as a foreign leader can be challenging as well. She ends on the powerful note that leadership is not about the leader but is the power of those who report to you because the organization is not about one person.

James Yamanaka is currently the President of BAT Japan. Mr. Yamanaka has had a truly global career, he started out at Deloitte in Consulting, then moved on to work in the Telecom industry and then started at BAT and his career has mostly been at BAT. Mr. Yamanaka is a 4th generation Japanese American; he grew up in California, started his education in the US but ended up going to Business school in London. 22 years ago, Mr. Yamanaka was working with BAT as a client in the Middle East and transitioned to working at BAT 18 years ago. His time at BAT has taken him across the world and he has worked in London, Germany, Sri Lanka, back to London and then to Denmark and now Japan. Mr. Yamanaka grew up in a heavily Japanese area called Torrance in the state of California in the U.S. When Mr. Yamanaka found out about his posting to Japan, he felt both worried and excited. He was excited to be closer to his Japanese roots and to find out where his ancestors came from. Although, Mr. Yamanaka is ethnically Japanese he hadn't lived or worked in Japan prior to his posting with BAT.

Mr. Yamanaka talks about improving engagement with his staff. He tries to achieve good engagement by trying to talk to his employees across the organization and goes 2 or 3 tiers below in rank and asks for feedback maybe about 4 times a week from his staff members. He follows a list and makes sure the organization is on the right track and doing the right thing, and secondly, he tries to ensure through these meetings that they are not missing anything vital. Sometimes, he also sits in into other teams' meetings and listens in. Mr. Yamanaka emphasizes that they treat BAT as an outlier company and as a company that has over 20 nationalities in their staff, BAT prides itself in being in a unique position compared to other multinational companies. Many other companies tend to be very heavily Japanese with a few expatriate staff at the higher levels. BAT has a large foreigner population, not all are expats and has a lot of foreign staff at the junior levels as well. He says that due to this outlier position, their recruitment strategy differs from other organizations, and they have accepted that they are an outlier company and thus recruit differently. He says that if you come to BAT, you can experience leaving Japan without actually leaving Japan.

Advice to someone coming to Japan for the first time, someone who doesn't speak Japanese and has not been to Japan would be to do the typical things, such as reading some books about the formalities in Japan, listen to the cultural things, try to read a real "yes" versus a yes that's said to you just to be agreeable. Someone who has been brought to Japan is usually in Japan to make some change, Mr. Yamanaka says that identifying a team that is willing to work with you to make that change will make a large difference. Learning Japanese would certainly help to work in Japan. Mr. Yamanaka says that he understands the cultural nuances as he is ethnically Japanese and recognizes the culture from his family back home. Mr. Yamanaka also says that as an ethnically Japanese person, the expectations of him with regards to learning the language are higher, yet this wouldn't be the case for most people, and they should learn Japanese if they are able.

Will Shaffer is currently the President of Boeing, Japan. Mr. Shaffer is originally from the US and started out as a pilot in the Navy, stationed out of Whidbey Island. After working as a pilot, Mr. Shaffer went to Business school and then worked in Consulting in the Seattle area. It was in this role within the consulting space, that Mr. Shaffer got accustomed to Boeing. Before coming to Japan with Boeing, Mr. Shaffer worked for many years in the Puget Sound area working across multiple roles within the supply chain organization. Prior to his posting to Japan over 2 years ago, Mr. Shaffer had some prior exposure to Japanese culture. When he was in the military, he was deployed to Japan several times. He later visited Japan many times when working in Boeing's Japanese suppliers. He says that an advantage of working at a global organization like Boeing is that though it is in Japan, there are Japanese hires but there are also international staff on the team that were hired locally.

He says he has noticed that many of the employees in Japan are a bit shyer when sharing ideas than perhaps other countries. Mr. Shaffer says that sometimes it takes a bit more effort to draw those ideas out from these people. He says the advantage that Boeing Japan has is probably staff that are more outspoken than an entirely Japanese firm. Sometimes drawing out these ideas can take a bit longer in Japan. Boeing is a highly regulated company, on both the commercial and defense sides so it can be easy to get caught up in the process and rules. He says that encouraging and rewarding managers that encourage innovation on their team while meeting safety and quality requirement is a way to encourage innovation.

He uses a variety of techniques to engage teams and garner ideas outside of them. Before COVID, he says he walked around to talk to people personally for the staff in Tokyo. Boeing has employees dispersed throughout Japan, so he would periodically go visit those regions to engage with those staff in-person. During the COVID period, this has shifted to the virtual world, Mr. Shaffer says that he has noticed that the virtual environment through chat and Webex has enabled some people to speak up and ask questions that they may not have asked that question in an in-person meeting.

Mr. Shaffer's advice to someone coming into Japan who doesn't know Japanese, or the culture would be to be humble. This advice could be different from US based or multi-national companies where you are supposed to be louder and advocate for yourself to succeed in the workplace. Another piece of advice would be to have patience, Japan does move at a slower pace and just being positive and celebrating the smaller wins will be helpful. He also suggests exploring the country and culture as that can bring you closer to colleagues and clients as well. Getting to know your team and people is a good step to bring you closer to your team, after-work culture and having drinks with your colleagues. Mr. Shaffer gives his personal advice on respecting privacy but also getting to know his team and workplace and asking about their weekends, sharing more about his own personal life on the weekend and hobbies brings him closer to his team.

Noriko Silvester is the President and Founder of Candlewick. Candlewick is a Public Relations consulting firm that works with clients in the Food, Beauty, Travel and Education space with a strong focus on products that influence people's wellbeing. They support overseas clients with their transition into the Japanese market, developing a strategy that considers differences in consciousness, customs and business in their home market and Japan. Mrs. Silvester started her career working as a secretary working at an American Financial Institution in Japan. She later realized that she wanted to get more involved in the business side of things and moved her way into sales and then got into Japanese cosmetics. She did marketing and sales for 8 years before moving briefly to a pharmaceutical company that had moved into Japan at the time, the company pulled out of Japan. She later started working at a Swiss company as a Brand Manager and they also pulled out of Japan. At this point, she started to feel that someone else was dictating her life, so she decided to start her own business. She founded Candlewick in 2004. She wanted her company's name to have some meaning. Candlewick was the name of her husband's grandmother's home which was also close to Candlewick Lake. She also added that the wick is the string at the core of the candle that is necessary to light it, so it is like the message that is core to a business functioning well.

Mrs. Silvester says that she finds that sharing knowledge and sharing experience makes people more open and likely to share. She also notes that the default Japanese tendency is to be less proactive. She is currently trying to get people on her team to be more proactive. She says providing people with experiential learning automatically forces them to be more proactive. For example, there is a foreign staff member on her team and most of their clients are overseas clients, so her staff automatically must be more proactive to work properly. The handling of mistakes depends on the staff's attitude, if the staff consult with upper management and do everything within their power to do things correctly and there is still a mistake, she says that upper management takes responsibility of that, however, is someone is very casual about making mistakes and not taking responsibility, she can be very severe about that.

Mrs. Silvester's advice to someone coming to Japan for a posting to Japan who doesn't speak Japanese and doesn't know Japan she would say to cover 4 areas:

• Staying in the box is the default option. Staying comfortable with the familiar is ingrained into Japanese culture
• It is good to have a mentor, a leader who is heading an organization would be helpful. A foreign mentor running a company in Japan would be helpful to speak with and learn from.
• Reading books about leadership in Japan to allow them to gain some insights before coming to Japan. Mrs. Silvester says she recently read a book with the title is "Making Rules, Breaking Rules that she found insightful.
• Experience and join the community. She says Japan has a long history and things are ingrained in the culture and people have a way of working. Learning and trying to understand this would be very helpful. Learning Japanese would be helpful in the workplace as well.

Darren Morrish is the General Manager of the Tokyo American Club and a numerous-time five-star hotel general manager throughout Asia, including Japan. Mr. Morrish is a Chef by trade and has been in the hospitality and hotel industry for many years. Mr. Morrish has a long history with the hotel industry as his parents were into the business of buying and selling hotels in Australia, so Mr. Morrish grew up moving a lot and exposed to the world of hospitality from an early age. Mr. Morrish wanted to start working as early as possible, so he started out by becoming a chef and then slowly moved out to the floor and worked his way through different levels of management with different hotel groups, both in Australia as well as stints in Malaysia, Singapore, China before moving to Japan permanently in the early 2000s. Mr. Morrish also worked in Korea and says that his experience there was very different from Japan.

Mr. Morrish says that to get people to be more creative is to have meetings in smaller groups. He says that in Japan, the smaller the group, the braver people feel to speak up and ask questions, whereas in a large group of 300 people, people typically would not ask questions. He says that Japan has changed over the years, the change is slower than what might be expected but compared to years ago, Japan has changed. In Japan, there are some very incredibly creative people, and they tend to stand out as there are fewer of them that go against the norm. He says that when he wants staff to be creative or have open discussions, he refers to Japanese success stories when talking with his colleagues, as these are examples that his staff can relate to. Mr. Morrish talks about Toyota or a local café as success stories when speaking with his colleagues as they will be able to relate to these examples more than they can relate to an example from Australia.

Mr. Morrishs' advice to someone coming for a posting to Japan would be to have a lot of patience. He says Japan may not be exactly what people think it is coming from outside and it is a very old culture, so things do not change quickly and just being mindful of that and being patient would go a long way. The second piece of advice would be to get involved in the culture, immerse yourself in the culture and build trust and enjoy your time in the country. Japan can be lonely if you are coming alone, so immerse yourself in the culture and meet other people. Another piece of advice would be not to make a quick judgement to say that Japan is different from anywhere else. He advises people to be flexible and try and learn from Japan. He says Tokyo is quite different from elsewhere in Japan and even Asia, it is perhaps the only Asian city that operates globally in the region. The diversity and the things you can experience in Japan is unique. China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore are all quite different in terms of experience and work culture and one should take this time in Japan as an opportunity to learn and grow with the culture.

Klaus Meder is the President of Bosch in Japan. Mr. Meder has been in Japan for almost 10 years in total, he worked in Japan from 1996 to 2000 and then shifted base to Japan again in mid 2017. During his initial visit to Japan, Mr. Meder was a part of a joint venture between the German company Bosch and the Japanese company Zaxel. The joint venture had about 100 people including the production team. There were 4 German staff members, and the rest were all Japanese. Mr. Meder said that at the time it was quite challenging as he didn't speak Japanese and although he had a full-time translator with him, he still found the language barrier to be a problem, he says have expert knowledge of ABAC control systems helped him a lot. Mr. Meder also said that as he was a specialist in the field and knew the current and next generations of modules this helped him a lot in his early days in Japan.

When Mr. Meder returned to Germany after his first stint in Japan, he said he learned to communicate really well with his small team in the countryside in Japan and he tried to emulate that back home in Germany. Another benefit he felt was that in the countryside in Japan, there were very few distractions and people were able to better focus on their work, in Germany he feels there is a lot to do outside of work so it can be a bit distracting. Upon returning to Japan the second time, Mr. Meder felt that a lot of things had changed. When he left the first time Bosch had less than 500 employees and now, they are over 7000 employees. Another interesting distinction Mr. Meder noticed in Japanese employees was the answer to the typical survey question, "Would you recommend Bosch to your family and friends?". He says that globally, over 90% staff say yes to that question, however, in Japan the number is lower. This could be due to the cultural factor, where Japanese staff feel more of an obligation towards making sure their friend/family member is a good fit for the employer and also, they feel more obligated about giving Bosch a good employee.

Mr. Meder's advice to someone coming into Japan would be to be respectful and don't say no right away. He says that being respectful usually doesn't hurt in Japan and small actions, words can go a long way. In Japan, where customer satisfaction and harmony are of most importance, if something doesn't seem like a good fit, don't reject it right away but consider it. Another piece of advice to foreigners would be to try to learn the language in Japan. Though, the language can be complicated to learn, effort is also rewarded, and locals really appreciate it even if you know a few words. Learning gestures and body language in Japan would be beneficial for someone coming to work in Japan, and body language is also very important. A point that Mr. Meder makes that is useful as well is that he thinks that the ideal time for a role in the workplace is 3-5 years as he feels that you can learn and master the role in that time. He has noticed that Japanese associates typically take longer in one role partly because it is discouraged to make too many changes and that employers might retain employees longer than they'd like because it is so difficult to fill vacancies. He feels though to learn and grow and be beneficial to the individual and the team, 3-5 years is an optimal duration in a role.

Hiroki Ishida is the Representative Director and President of BASF Japan Ltd, a German multinational chemical company. Mr. Ishida originally joined BASF in the early 90s as a new graduate and worked his way into leadership roles. He has also worked in the company's headquarter in Germany as a research chemist which he recalls as a challenging experience due to the language barrier and environment. Mr. Ishida then switched into sales and marketing as he realized he could add more value there. In addition to Japan and Germany, Mr. Ishida has developed global leadership experience working in Malaysia and Hong Kong.

The first thing Mr. Ishida noticed about working in Germany was the need to ask questions and show initiative. He recalls not getting his laptop because he did not ask for one on his first day at the office. In total, Mr. Ishida worked in Germany for 3 years before returning to Japan. During this time, Mr. Ishida focused on new business development which he started in Germany to introduce some new products to the Japanese market. Back in Japan, Mr. Ishida found the need to adopt a "hybrid" business mindset working for a Japanese market with a Japanese team, but in a global environment.

When working in Malaysia as a senior manager of sales covering multiple Asian countries, Mr. Ishida experienced further cultural differences. In the beginning, Mr. Ishida tried to implement changes that were successful in Japan, but completely failed. Overtime, Mr. Ishida realized unlike his Japanese employees who would follow the boss's instructions, he needed to his Southeast Asian employees to buy in to his initiatives. Mr. Ishida learned to understand his team's background and their source of motivation, and properly explain why he needed things to be done a certain way. In the end, Mr. Ishida recalls his experience in Malaysia as "fantastic" as he was able to further develop leadership while valuing diversity and inclusion and learning from his colleagues.

To this day, Mr. Ishida says he has a team-oriented approach to leadership. He explains: "my motto is [to] get together…sometimes my ideas are better, but sometimes my colleagues' ideas are better…so I don't care about organizational hierarchies." In adopting this respectful and enthusiastic approach to leadership, Mr. Ishida thinks his team enjoys working together. When encouraging others to have high engagement, Mr. Ishida is careful not to simply give out instructions when delegating but also explain the objective, reasoning, and benefits people will receive by completing them. By giving a clear framework of the task but leaving the detailed process to the workers, Mr. Ishida gives both accountability and flexibility to his team. He is also understanding of mistakes and failures, and emphasizes the importance of analyzing the mistake and learning from them. Mr. Ishida adds: "In the VUCA era, we need to be more passionate, encouraging mistakes [and] bolder ideas…particularly in Japan, under these uncertain situations, we definitely need such a leader in the future."

On innovation, Mr. Ishida recognizes the challenge of fostering creativity as BASF is a very task-oriented company with structured targets. He explains that top and mid-level leaders need to encourage bolder ideas instead of just focusing on achieving the already set goals. Mr. Ishida observes that BASF is beginning to focus on long-term success based on customer needs, understanding of industry trends, and encouraging newer ideas.

To newcomers of Japan who want to succeed as leaders, Mr. Ishida advises to understand and respect the deep-rooted Japanese culture. In Japan, harmonization is highly valued, so people may not be as comfortable speaking up compared to the west. Usually when foreign leaders enter a Japanese company, Mr. Ishida points out that it is because the organization wants to implement some sort of change. By being aware of the background and culture of a Japanese organization and clearly communicating your mission to the team and customers, Mr. Ishida thinks newcomers will establish more trust. Mr. Ishida thinks learning Japanese in an international company is not necessary, but in smaller organizations, it is beneficial to learn a few words to develop good relationships.

Mr. Ishida defines leadership as someone that inspires others and make speedy decisions particularly in uncertain situations. Additionally, it is someone who communicates with positivity, is approachable, trustworthy, and encourages open communication.

Tim Schlanghecke is the Country Director for Flavour of Symrise in Japan. Mr. Schlanghecke has been in Japan ever since he graduated University from his home country, Germany. He says that he is not able to compare Japanese workplace and management to Germany since he did not work much in Germany. Mr. Schlanghecke says that his first venture was a small brewery that he started in the Japanese countryside, where people did not speak much English. He moved around Japan quite a lot in his early years in Japan, he spent some time in Fukuoka, Hokkaido, Mishima, Shizuoka, Yamagata and the spent some time in the Kansai area before coming to Tokyo. As someone who was passionate about breweries, the natural inclination for Mr. Schlanghecke was to go to the Japanese countryside to work there. The businesses plateaued at one point and then Mr. Schlanghecke decided to move to Tokyo to start his own consulting business, in his expertise niche which was consulting breweries.

Since Mr. Schlanghecke is in a unique industry, Mr. Story asked Mr. Schlanghecke if it was challenging to convince Japanese board members and junior staff that they should come work for his smaller organization and not a larger, more stable, typical Japanese firm. Mr. Schlanghecke says he is passionate about his work and that translates outward and a lot of the time he hopes people see it and join him because of that passion. Japan works differently than other countries, resistance to change is one example of one thing that is different in Japan. Mr. Schlanghecke says that this is almost a philosophical topic as the resistance to change is deeply embedded in Japanese culture and it goes back hundreds of years. Japan's work culture has achieved astronomical things, the amount of total wealth that Japan has generated and the distribution of wealth in Japan has improved phenomenally over the years. Though Mr. Schlanghecke suspects that what worked in the past will not be the same way to be successful in the future. He believes though that we are at a turning point in society and industrialization and modern capitalism as we know it is likely not the way forward. He believes that for the world to be sustainable for future generations, we need to think about climate change, change our way of thinking about society and change the ways of working due to a changing demographic of an aging population. Though Japan has resisted change in the past, it may need to start slowly accepting it given the circumstances.

Mr. Schlanghecke's advice to someone coming into Japan would be to listen first and don't complain. He says a lot of the time people come in and make assumptions on the little knowledge of Japan they may have; he also encourages them to go into details and be more Japanese. Learning about Japan and the Japanese way takes time and patience and an in depth understanding of Japanese. Having been in Japan, Mr. Schlanghecke says that for a foreign company to work in Japan, they need to have 100% backing and support from their head office, all the successes he has seen have worked in this way. Though Mr. Schlanghecke speaks Japanese and he used to work in the Japanese language, he has recently shifted back to communicating in English. He states that the reason for this is that Japanese tends to have nuances and be misunderstood by the other party because of the subtleties, he feels English is a more direct language and people are better able to understand instructions if he speaks in English.