Gaijin

I have coworkers who have. They fall into two camps:

1. People who actively wanted the move so they love it. Love the people, culture, excitement, etc.

2. People who were asked by the company to do it without wanting to. They struggle more but usually not a problem.

Both camps say that HK is easier to deal with in terms of getting around and getting things done. Just have to be careful of the poverty/crime, etc. just like NYC

Tokyo is more rigid with more attention to "tradition" at meetings. In general, they feel the HK'ers are more open to westerners whereas the Japanese are a bit more "arrogant", almost like the french lol.

What do you want to know specifically about being a gaijin?

One interesting comment I heard is that when negotiating is that if you need a 100, a Chinese guy will ask for 180, American will ask for 120 and a japanese will ask for 80.

Just to clarify, I actually lived and worked in Japan for quite a few years.

just curious what it's like culturally, what you liked or didn't like....

did you get an offer to work abroad?

Tokyo is one of the most amazing cities in the world. It can be overwhelming if you just show up without a game plan, due diligence etc. Japanese people are some of the most helpful, kind people in the world. If you show to them that you have put in even the smallest effort to learn part of the language, or culture, they will treat you with so much respect its unreal. They have this huge fascination and endearment for western culture.

The city is absolutley amazing, futuristic, sort of high tech manhattan meets vegas with all the lights. The food is some of the best in the world, even if your not into sushi. The nightlife is unreal in shibuya, roppongi hills, etc (mmany more places).

The people you work with are a very tight knit group. usually out drinking with them everyday, if you meet a good group of people, you will have the best time. The only thing, which i see applicable with any big city, is its easy to get lost and lonely if you arent keen on going out and meeting people, etc. Transportation is unreal, trains ALWAYS on time, and so fast. Idk, its a great city. I plan on trying to work abroad there for at least a year in the future.

walks down the street, people will stare. A lot of visitors feel this is disrespectufl, but dont really understand that they are just doing it because they are quite fascinated about OUR culture, lifestyle, dress etc, just as we are witht hem. If you see someone staring, look at it as a positive, also, idk if you are into japanese chicks, there are quite a few very cute ones, not too mention the brazillians.

I have mixed feelings about Japan, and the gaijin experience there. There are a lot of good and bad things. The good things have partly been covered by tekno so a few of the bad things... the Japanese are some of the most racist people I have ever experienced. A casual visitor won't notice it because Japanese are extremely non-confrontational. However it comes through in extremely clear ways that Japan is 99% ethnic Japanese and they plan to keep it that way. There are numerous examples (ministry of health claiming that medicines need to be reexamined when introduced to Japan because Japanese have a different physiology than the rest of humanity, the governor of Tokyo saying that in the case of a major earthquake all foreigners should be immediately arrested to prevent looting, Japan admitting less than 1/100 of people applying for political/religious asylum, it being impossible for a non-Japanese to gain citizenship even if you were born here, lived here your whole life, speak fluently, went to Japanese school etc.)

As far as the professional culture (which I am sure is what you are more interested in), Japan is a country that is failing. Almost without exception every American expat here is convinced this country is sinking and fast. The outside world has an idealized view of japanese firms due to world-class outfits such as Sony and Toyota, but for every Sony there are a 100 firms with unbelievably bad management, no concept of shareholder value, and simply being propped up by their lender banks that are too afraid of default.

Japanese operations of international financial firms are much better but there is still a great deal of inefficiency and institutionalized thinking that it drives their American managers crazy. One example that illustrates; my friend works for M/B/B here. The traditional japanese lunch time is from 12-1, everyone goes at that time, lines are long, you barely have time to eat and get back even though you have an hour for lunch. My friend suggested to his co-workers that they go at 1 for lunch, skip the lines, save 30 min. etc. These being consultants, you would figure that this is such an obvious idea to make life easier. All his Japanese co-workers simply could not understand why you would not eat lunch at noon; finally he just went with the other gaijins in the office.

I don't want to bash Japan too much, there are definitely some very positive aspects about the culture. For example, service here is consistently better than anything I receive in the US even though there is no tipping here of any kind. The bottom line is, people here are very nice, very pleasant and respectful, but you will always be an outsider.

Oh and as far as the nightlife, it is amazing in some parts. The best thing is no matter what your budget you can have an absolute blast; for as little as $20-30 you can get absolutely tanked, go to nice clubs and all that for a night. Roppongi, Shinjuku, Shibuya, some parts of Harajuku, a few exclusive spots in Nishi-Azabu are unbelievable.

Tekno, what field are you in?

boozer

compliments for an outstanding and insightful post.

cheers-

very thorough. I have not lived there, only visited. I work with international equities at a major BB. what about you

Sales or trading? Two very different cultures in Japan. I'm in consulting.

Guys, compliments on super fascinating and insightful accounts. My experience being limited only to a couple of friends and reading the likes of "The Ugly Americans", "Shogun" and "Tai-Pan", your posts provided a wealth of insight.

I lived and worked in Tokyo for only 6 months so my expertise is rather limited in this area, but I agree to what many have said already.

While I never really experienced any racism, the Japanese certainly believe that they are simply "special". At first it was easy to shrug this off, but after a couple months, the constant attitude got very old.

On the flip side, the shopping and nightlife is top notch in Tokyo.

Personally, I hated the food.

Great messages here, I just wanted to intervene since I am 27 and have spent 4 years working in China mainland but just across the border from HK. I was actually in Shenzhen. So I’ve spent a lot of time in HK.

I am now a MBA student and I do my first summer internship in a big IT company in their acquisition/incubation division. My only goal is to get an IB Associate position in Asia (preferably Singapore or HK) since I really liked my life there.

I don’t know Japan but to be honest you will live very well in HK, people are very tolerant, I have never seen any form of racism and it’s a great mix between nice luxury places and small fish markets :-) Moreover I don’t see investors moving their investments from HK to China mainland, still too risky so no real short term danger for the industry. Another point is that usually IB teams are smaller, not organized in coverage group and if you want to be promoted that is a good option. The bad point is that they are getting tougher in terms of language requirements so basic Chinese is more than appreciated…

Sorry if this is slightly off topic, but i work as an analyst right now in sales here in the states but i was born in asia and grew up most of my childhood there. I am harboring aspirations from moving from the US to HK, Tokyo etc in the future on a desk over there. Does anyhow have any insight into how difficult that might be?

Ugly Americans is a book by the guy who wrote "Bringing Down the House" about the MIT blackjack team (Ben Mezrich I believe), it's a fictionalized account of gaijin hedge fund guys living in working in Osaka and Tokyo. I read it at the same time I was reading Liar's Poker and had a blast (even though it's fictionalized).

Meebs, I agree, it's funny since i did exactly the same things: liar's poker and ugly americans...Ugly americans is a great book, if you are interested in the financial industry and that you like asia you must read this book.

I've got a good friend who works for an east asia fund-of-funds...has lived in Japan and LOVES it there. Have another friend who couldn't hack the culture shock and drank himself out of a job