Thursday, June 4, 2009

I am Salaryman of Japan. Resistance is futile

I have, as people who followed this blog probably already figured out, worked in Japan for almost ten years now and frequently acted as the liaison between the Japan organization, potential partners here in Japan and the head office. I have worked here so long that some people in the head office probably perceive me as more Japanese than Swedish most of the time, and some people seem to have this idea that all Japanese are connected to each other through some giant hive mind, communicating to each other through wordless means such as scents, sweat glands and pheromones.

Granted, most people realize that I'm not fully Japanese due me speaking English fluently and also not behaving like a purebred Japanese business person to them, but some of them still seem to believe that I am connected to this giant Japanese hive mind through my racial half-Japanese heritage.

A little while earlier I was participating in a meeting with a Japanese company and some people from the head office, the Japanese company was clearly not very interested in what we had to offer and showed this through stone faces and general disinterest. As we were sitting in this slightly uncomfortable meeting, one of the head office person tries to discreetly nudge me and whispers to me "what is he thinking?" referring to one of the stone faced past middle-aged salarymen across us. It was pretty obvious to everyone that they were not really interested and the only I things I could imagine him thinking were "I can't wait to get wasted with my buddies tonight", "How am I gonna find time to watch through all the porn I've downloaded last night?" or maybe "these guys just don't realize when to stop talking and go home".

Ok, there are some cultural wordless means of communication, but not to the point where we are all connected to this giant hive mind coordinating our plans for world domination and even if something like that exist I'm obviously not connected to those plans. The simple truth is that Japanese are as much individuals deep down as any Westerner and that misunderstandings between Japanese people happen at least as often as between Westerners, probably more in my experience...

7 comments:

Chris said...

"The simple truth is that Japanese are as much individuals deep down as any Westerner"

I have not met this one??
Your not saying there's more than one...are you??

Mr. Salaryman said...

Well, I kinda have to say it now... Resistance is futile Chris!

Me said...

The Borg do seem to have been modeled after the Japanese - but I haven't quite figured out who the Borg Queen is?

honneysucker said...

im still bored. why im wastig my time here? still, imagine the japanese are the part of "Westerners" now. so what does it mean "racial half-Japanese"? i mean it seriously. do you mean japanese are the race wich was breeded to be japanese or do you mean japanese are the race wich was done by spontaneous inbreeding? becuz i saw so many different ethnic groups and cultures inside of japanese nationality that i just cant understad your point. please dont take this as an insult or trolling. i am realy curious. peace and with respect.

honeysucker said...

The Borg do seem to have been modeled after the Japanese - but I haven't quite figured out who the Borg Queen is? --

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Borg_Queen

Mr. Salaryman said...

Hey there Honeysucker! My advice to you would be to chill out a bit and don't take things here too seriously and if you really want to know my views on the racial composition of Japanese citizens send me a mail.

Me - Obviously the Queen of the Japanese must be one of those gravia models

Anonymous said...

Haha, you tell the best stories.

Did you know that gravia = gravure? I was a little shocked to see that some of my fav. actresses do gravure, but I guess it's comparable to actresses posing for playboy in the US. I don't think many of them do, actually... Why do Japanese female stars do it?

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