One of the pleasures of living overseas is to experience the cultural differences. Japan, as everyone knows, always amazes people with the differences that it possess over its counterparts. Perhaps part of this comes from the advanced nature of the economy and country’s development. It would seem many people I end up talking to lump Japan in with all of Asia, assuming it to be around-about the general level of development of Asia in general. For some reason people seem to forget that up until the lost decade, Japan was the second biggest economies in the world. Now ever it’s still number 3. For 10 years of economic stagnation it is still a mighty economy that makes many many countries look like non-events on the global scale. So development – advances development – is an everyday part of life here. It is also refined in many ways beyond expectation. For example, it has more Michelin stars awarded to its restaurants than any other country, making it (arguably) the best place to eat in the world.
Still even with all of this front and center in your mind there are still things which make you smile every now and then.
I was part of a large project negotiation last week, where we had foreign counterparts coming together in our Tokyo headquarters (home to a few thousand of a 13,000 odd international workforce) to figure out a couple of key agreements. Part of the opening meeting was naturally the safety briefing. It’s a briefing I’ll admit I listen to a little better here than I did at home, given the quakes that rumble through Tokyo every other day. After the process of evacuating the building was explained (using 2 internal or 2 ‘collapsible’ external stairways) someone senior commented along the following lines:
The building that we are in is the former head office of one of the biggest Japanese Steel & Construction companies. It built this building for itself. As a result the design brief was for a building that would stand for a century, proudly displaying a level of over engineering, strength and integrity. With this design requirement the building has one of the lowest seismic index scores for any building in the world. As a result, if there is a big earthquake, your best to stay inside for as long as it takes to secure the general area. If that is going to take time, proceed to the basement restaurant and stay comfortably for as long as it takes. We tell you this primarily because we can’t promise the state of other buildings and walking outside would most certainly be more dangerous than staying inside this building.
It was delivered in a matter-of-fact way that had most of the Japanese people in the room nodding and agreeing with the advice. I had to laugh a little thinking about the likes of Devine in Australia, and I think if they could save a few bucks here and there even in their own headquarters the probably would. It would be probably even more cheaper and crappier than the places they build for customers. I remember my old work in Brisbane used to leak when it rained – and it was a 20 story high-rise that was less than 2 years old!
Here, a couple of dump a bucket of cash into its headquarters to be a living demonstration of the quality that should be associated with the product – when it comes to spending to get the quality, they practice what they preach. And looking at the video’s from people’s mobile phones of the Great Quake last year (when they were sitting in the same place they sit now next to me), I believe the credentials of the building!
Sure this particular cultural quirk – where quality still is valued in the marketplace can mean living here is expensive. But you buy things made in Japan – they do last!
Related articles
- Four lessons from Japan on how to deal with hurricanes (tokyotimes.com)
- Japan’s Industrial Production Unexpectedly Gains in October (bloomberg.com)
An Aussie In Japan 