foreign white collar employees working for the … white collar employees working for the japanese...
TRANSCRIPT
1992, 23-30
Foreign white collar employees working
for the Japanese companies in Japan
Misato Yamazaki*
(Nagoya City University)
The aim of this study is to examine the present stage internationalization ofJapanese companies by identifying the employment situations of foreign personnel. To obtain empirical data and statistics, a survey of foreign employeesworking for Japanese companies in Japan was made covering both companiesand foreign employees working for the Japanese companies in Japan.
Major findings were as follows. (1) All Japanese companies studied are ratherat the initial stage of internationalization in foreigner employment. (2) Bothcompanies and foreign employees aware slow internationalization in this area.(3)The disruption of communication seen in one case was not the same as others.It was stressed from the result that it is important for both parties to try toidentify mutual expectations with flexible attitude to reach some agreement byknowing each other better.
I. Introduction
Personnel development is a key for the effective
companies' activities and management. From a
business globalization point of view, the study of
employment of foreign employees in Japanese
companies in Japan will provide important infor
mation to evaluate the actual present state of
Japanese companies' internationalization. There
fore, this study is expected to bring some data to
come to a conclusion about the argument on inter
nationalization of Japanese companies in a true
sense of meaning.
There have been several empirical statistics pro
vided about foreign employees and companies hir
ing foreign employees in Japan, such as those
compiled by The Economic Planning Agency
(1988) and Kaisha Society (1989). But the view-
* The author would like to thank Professors
Yasuo Hoshino and Malcolm Trevor, Nagoya
City University, for their valuable comments.
However, the author alone is responsible for all
statements and any possible errors in this arti
cle.
point of these statistics tended to present a story
indicating only either one side of the situations.
According to the report of Ministry of Justice
(1988), there were 6,242 foreign nationals regis
tered to be working in Japan as regular working
staffs in 1986, with the qualification of passport
numbered 4-1-16-3. And it was reported that 30% of
these foreign nationals engageed in clerical
works, except for the language teaching and trade
business.
The data of The Economic Planning Agency
suggested that the companies' demand for foreign
employees is divided into three types of job: lan
guage teaching (53.7%), a job for a specific pur
pose such as engineering (9.2%) and a job consist
ing of ordinary work (9.2%). For this study, the
first type was excluded from the analysis, so the
other two types should be examined.
There exsist very scarce data covering both for
eign employees and Japanese companies to exam
ine employment issues by comparing viewpoints
from both sides. Therefore this study was de
signed to investigate the actual state of companies
and foreign employees by asking the same ques
tions to both parties. Actually, after this survey
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was started, the similar survey was done by the
Ministry of Labor in 1989 covering both companies
and foreign employees (1990). Only the difference
to be stressed between the present study and other
surveys is that all foriegn employees were chosen
without the companies' involvement for this sur
vey, while the interviewees were introduced
through the companies' personnel section for the
survey of the Ministry of Labor. Whether compa
nies involved or not is a very important factor in
order to get candid answers from the interviwees.
Although sample size for this survey was
smaller than that of the Ministry of Labor, some
similar results were obtained from both studies.
Both surveys interviewed seven companies. The
reasons to select companies were not the same,
however. In the interview for the Ministry of La
bor, the companies were chosen according to the
standards that they were hiring many foreign em
ployees and that they were judged to have already
established the employment system for foreign
employees. On the other hand, for the present
study criteria were just the opposite; companies
which seemed not to be so positive to hiring for
eign employees were selected by considering the
ratio of foreign employees to Japanese colleagues
in the company. This is because the attitude to
wards employment of foreigners among the aver
age Japanese companies would be best observed in
those companies. Statistics presented by the sur
vey of the Ministry of Justice indicated that 55.9 %
of the Japanese companies listed on the Tokyo
Stock Exchange hired no foreign workers with no
future plans to do so at the time of the survey (Ja
pan Times. 1989). This fact guided the sampling
strategy for the present study.
E. Method
1 . Interview and Questionnaire Surveys of For
eign Employees
Interviews were held with twenty foreign em
ployees working for Japanese companies in Japan
at different intervals between July 1989 and Octo
ber 1990. The time required for each interview was
typically within one hour in average (minimum 30
and maximum 90 mimutes). Only three persons
were introduced through the company personnel
section. Others were selected either at random or
by being introduced by someone who knew them.
It was important for this survey to approach inter
viewees directly without the company's involve
ment in order to get unbiased answers from them.
The questionnaire was sent to 63 foreign em
ployees between July 1989 and June 1990, without a
fixed deadline with an intention that respondents
would answer at their own free will and in their
own time. 35 responses (55.6%) were recovered.
The same schedule of inquiry was used for both
interviewing and questionnaire surveys. The ques
tion items were divided into the four general ar
eas: personal background, job and compensation,
work environment, and job qualifications. This
was followed by free discussions or comments
that interviewees or respondents were currently
interested in or worried about.
The interviewees and respondents could select
either English or Japanese for responding. Some
were not native speakers of these languages but
they were asked to speak or write in either one or
the other languages. All the interviews were car
ried out by only a single interviewer.
2. Company Interview and Questionnaire Sur
vey
Interviews were held with seven Japanese com
panies hiring foreign white-collar employees at
different intervals between July 1989 and October
1990. The time required for each interview was in
average one and a half hours (minimum one hour
and maximum two hours). The questionnaire was
sent out to four Japanese companies hiring for
eign employees or considering to hire foreign em
ployees between July and October 1989. Responses
were received from all four. After receiving re
sponses, the compannies were asked to answer
some additional questions by the phone.
The same set of question was used at interview
and questionnaire studies. The contents of the
questions were divided into three areas: the back
ground of hiring foreign employees, job and com
pensation, and a present status and future pros
pect of hiring foreign employees. The interviewees
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Foreign white collar employees working for the Japanese companies in Japan
and respondents were all staffs in charge of hiring
foreign employees in the personnel department.
All the companies examined were listed on the
first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The
field of business differed each other except for the
two companies belonging to the same field, but
companies were divided into three types: manufac
turing, construction and service. All the interviews
were carried out by the one interviewer.
Iff. Results
1 . Personal Background
The distribution of all respondents in terms of
sex and age is shown in Table 1. Their jobs were
divided into two types: 42 persons (76.4%) were in
clerical work, and 13 persons (23.6%) were in tech
nical work area. Regrardless of the fact that there
were 14 nationalities, 26 of the 55 respondents
(47.3%) were from the USA, and only 12 (21.8%)
were from Asia. The proportion of the US nation
ality was rather higher than that of other nation
alities. The three compnies interviewed explained
this situation saying that they would like to hire
people whose nationality was the same as the
country where they intended to expand their busi
nesses. However, an apparent preference for na
tionalities might not be desirable for the further
globalization of Japanese business.
Table 1. Age and sex of the respondents(foreign employees)
Age Male Female Total
20's 29 4 33 (60 %)
30's 16 1 17 (30.1%)
40's 5 0 5 ( 9.1%)
50's 0 0 0
Total 50 55 (100 %)
Table 2. Reasons for employing foreign nationals(multiple answers by companies interviewed)
1. For the internationalization 8 (72.7%)
2. Due to shortage of manpower 6 (54.5%)
3. Special ability which cannot bereplaced by Japanese employees 6 (54.5%)
2 . Motivation
From the viewpoint of supply and demand in the
labor market, one has to consider motivation:
both the motivation for Japanese companies to
hire foreign employees and for foreign employees
to be hired by Japanese companies in Japan. An
effort was made to seek this question through the
interview, regarding where the companies' de
mand and the foreign employees' supply meet At
interviews, most of the Japanese companies
pointed out the following three reasons for hiring
foreign employees. (1) The need for a specified field
where some specific abilities were required was
pointed out by six of eleven companies (54.5%).
(2) Six companies (54.5%) reported that they
needded engineers due to the shortage of man
power. (3) Another reason is for adaptation to
companies' internationalization inside and out
side the company. (Table 2)
As for foreign employees' motivation to work
for Japanese companies in Japan, it is divided
into three types. The first type is the carreer-
motivated group (16 of the 55 respondents) who
came to Japanese companies for career enhance
ment (29%). The second type is those who were
interested in Japanese business and customs, com
prising 21respondents (38.2%) and those 4 respon
dents, (7.3%) who had come to firms in Japan for
cultural or linguistic interests. Finally, the third
type is those who had come for the immediate
work and money (see Table 3 for the detail).
To have better employment relations for both
employers and employees, some important issues
need to be taken into consideration as objects of
Table 3. Motivation for coming to work for theJapanese company reported by foreignemployees
1. Career enhancement 16 (29 %)
2. Interest in business 21 (38.2%)
3. Cultural, linguistic 4 ( 7.3%)
4. Immediate work opportunity 6 (10.9%)
5. Money 3 ( 5.5%)
6. Other 5 ( 9.1%)
Total 55 (100 %)
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further study. These objects should include the dif
ferences in motivation between different types of
white-collar foreign employees, namely, the
short-term career group and those who prefer a
long-term contract. A clear difference of motiva
tion is also seen between fresh recruits and mid-
career hires. The former have never experienced
work in companies except for the present ones,
thus their evaluation on working conditions is
limited in perspective. The latter have worked in
other companies and can compare their present
conditions with what they experienced elsewhere.
They can analyze their job situations better than
the former, and also know how to adapt to the
Japanese companies better. The results of inter
views shown in Table 4 need to be interpreted by
considering this difference.
3 . Duration of Stay
According to Table 5, more than 60% of the em
ployees see themselves staying with the company
in Japan for a period of up to five years. Only
about 11% of them see that they will stay longer
than that. (Table 5) This trend does not indicate
that the foreign employees think it is not worth
while working for the Japanese companies for
more than five years, but that they are following
their own career plans.
There were several persons interviewed who re
ported that they were working at rather lower
salaries than those in their home countries, be
cause they wanted to know more about Japanese
ways of doing business and to adopt them to their
business in home countries after leaving Japan.
The "career group" identified in Table 3 tended to
select his own job in order to help his future ca
reer. They said they have no sense of guilt towards
the company for leaving before the end of the con
tract. These are very typical patterns seen among
talented or highly capable foreign employees clas
sified as a career group. This group act or choose
their jobs according to their own plans or deci
sions, not for the sake of salary or some idea
of loyalty. They try to find opportunities by them
selves. Japanese employers should therefore ex
plain not only the kind of job assignment and the
job description to such career-oriented employees
precisely, but also the companies' expectations of
them in order to create a better mutual under
standing.
The question of how long employees will con
sider remaining with the company is so important
for employers that correct information is needed
to answer the question. Japanese employers know
the importance of this question very well, but it
must be stressed that each foreign employee may
think differently in this regard, and their self-
perception may differ in each case. It is also neces
sary for companies to maintain flexibility in each
situation.
Table 4. Comparison of Japanese employment conditions to those experiencedin other employment reported by foreign employees
Better Equal Worse Don't know Total
12 (21.8%) 14 (25.5%) 19 (34.5%) 10 (18.2%) 55 (100%)
Table 5. Estimated years of stay with the company reported by foreign employees
Estimated years of stay
-1 2~3 4-5 6-910 years TT
Uncertainor more
Total
9
(16.4)
13
(23.6)
13
(23.6)
2
( 3.6)
6 12
(10.9) (21.8)
55
(100%)
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Foreign white collar employees working for the Japanese companies in Japan
4 . Promotion
Promotion aspects for employing white collar
foreign nationals should be considerd carefully in
relation to their motivation to work or their per
ceptions of the job, because the duration of their
stay with the company in Japan will be deter
mined by their expectations and perceptions of
their promotion situations.
Table 6 displays foreign employees' promotion
prospects associated with working for Japanese
companies. Results indicate that almost half of
foreign employees think prospects are rather bad,
in spite of the fact that they are paid at least as
much salary as their Japanese colleagues. (See
Table 8)
5 . Cultural problems
(1) Employment contract
The results of interviews and questionnaire sur
veys indicated that only nine out of total respon
dents (16.4%) were hired on a life-time employ
ment contract. Other respondents were found be
ing hired on a contract for a limited time period.
Selection of contracts was made possible for for
eign employees in some companies, but in some
others there was no life-time employment avail
able for foreign employees. For example, two of
three employees working for the same company
reported that their company did not provide life-
Table 6. Promotion prospects in the Japanese companies reported by foreign employees
Promotion prospects
Good Bad Don't know Total
22
(40)
24 9
(43.4) (16.4)
55
(100%)
time contract for foreign employees, while they
considered a life-time contract to be suitable for
them. It might be important for all foreign em
ployees to be able to select the type of contracts by
their own initiative. As the payment system would
normally correspond to the type of contract, the
selection of the life-time employment must be
made available for foreign employees.
(2) Overtime
As seen in Table 7, almost 70% of employees
were doing overtime work every day. Adding this
figure to the occasional overtime workers makes
the total figure to be over 90% (Table 7).
Almost all of the foreign employees inteviewed
in this survey thought that a great deal of overtime
was not actually necessary. They reported that in
many cases, Japanese colleagues were expanding
work which could be done within regular working
hours. However, they were doing as much over
time as their Japanese colleagues in order to pro
tect themselves against the criticism that foreign
ers were different, even though they believed over
time work was unnecessary. This issue should be
considered more seriously because it is one of the
important problems to be solved through discus
sions between employers and foreign employees.
6 . Perception Gap
Almost half of foreign employees (26 persons,
47.3%) felt that they were being hired only in order
to enhance the companies' image of international
enterprises (Table 8). In other words, companies
could hire "any" foreign employees rather than
"someone" with specific abilities. This kind of
perception influences employees' loyalty nega
tively. In contrast, the companies' perception of
foreign employees was different from that of the
employees themselves as shown in Table 2.
Table 7. Frequency of overtime work reported by foreign employees
Frequency
Everyday ^ Almost everyday Occasionally Seldom Never Total
8
(14.5)
31
(56.4)
12
(21.8)
2
( 3.6)
2
( 3.6)
55
(100%)
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Table 8. Company's expectations*What does the company expect from you ?
1. Achievement of company's target
2. Language ability as a native speaker
3. Internationalization of company's business
4. To provide information about home country's market
5. Internationalization of work environment
6. Not certain (company seemed to hire foreigners to meet the current)
7. To learn Japanese as fast as possible to handle any work
8. As a test case to hire foreigners
9. To work in the company's subsidiary eventually
* Open-ended responses were classified into the above 9 categories.
17
30
36
20
6
26
3
11
9
Namely, six out of 11 companies interviewed an
swered that they hired foreign employees for their
specific abilities which Japanese employees could
not substitute for, and that they therefore hired
foreign employees by necessity (See Table 2).
A clear difference of perception exsists between
the Japanese companies and their foreign employ
ees. It might be necessary for companies to let
their foreign employees know that they are needed
by the companies. At least it is necessary at pre
sent to get to know, and to explain the differences
each other to be able to come to some compro
mise.
It may be needed as well for foreign employees
to know Japanese customs, including business
customs and social life in order to be accepted as
members of Japanese companies and Japanese
society. It would also be better for Japanese com
panies to educate foreign employees about Japa
nese ways of doing business and customs which
seem somewhat different from foreign ones in or
der to deploy them more effectively. However,
only one Japanese company interviewed was con
sidering the necessity of general orientation. In
addition, six out of eleven companies were think
ing that Japanese language education is necessary
for foreign employees, regardless of the fact that
eight out of the eleven companies think that OJT is
necessary for foreign employees as well. In order
to achieve true internationalization, it would be
necessary to make foreign employees conceive of a
basic understanding of Japanese companies first.
This would include more language training and
OJT. In addition, some consideration should be
given by foreign employees themselves to solve
these problems. Foreign employees reported that
they are not to be getting used to Japanese cus
toms and many are not even trying to do so. With
reference to the results of the interviews and the
questionnaire survey, five out of 55 respondents
(9.1%) could neither read nor write Japanese at
all. Including the number of intermediate-
beginners of Japanese language, more than 36% of
foreign employees could not read and 45% of them
could not write Japanese, in spite of the fact they
were working for Japanese companies in Japan.
The more serious effort to learn Japanese lan
guage and to know Japanese companies better
need to be made by foreign employees themselves
so that better evaluation by their Japanese col
leagues and companies will be established, and
they can become real and equal members of the
company. By knowing each other, there will come
a better adjustment inside the companies. And this
adjustment arising out of mutual understanding
within the home office in Japan will become a pre
requisite towards internationalization in over
seas.
Though some unique cultural problems for for
eign employees exist in Japan, comparable
ploblems might as well exist anywhere for those
who live outside in their own countries to a certain
extent. Much attention should be paid to how far
foreigners would change their ways of life to new
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Foreign white collar employees working for the Japanese companies in Japan
circumstances in order to adapt to those in an
other country. Japanese companies interviewed
seemed to have keen awareness of this issue from
their experiences with foreign employees. Seven of
the ten companies interviewed (70%) reported that
they considered the importance of judging foreignemployees' capability to adjust themselves to
Japanese companies and the Japanese way of liv
ing at the interviw held with foreigners upon recruiting.
It may be said that the more foreign employeesknow about Japan, the more they can adapt them
selves to the Japanese way of life and to Japanese
companies, and therefore the more they can work
efficiently in Japanese companies without need
less misunderstandings. Both companies and for
eign employees would need to give more serious
considerations to this point again.
7. How to Treat Foreign EmployeesThe results of the survey indicated that all of the
ten companies interviewed were paying their for
eign employees additional money with the inten
tion of helping them with the high cost of housing.The amount of money ranged from ¥20,000 to
¥50,000 per month depending on the company(Table 9). As a result, the foreign employeeswerebeing paid more than their Japanese colleagues bythe amount of the housing allowance. This maybecome a problem, because Japanese colleaguesmay consider this payment system to be unequal,
and that companies are discriminating againstJapanese employees in favor of foreign employees. Therefore, it is necessary to design a carefultreatment of the housing allowance.
8. Professionalism: Generalists vs. SpecialistsIn order to discuss the issue of professionalism
adequately, it is necessary to understand the ques
tions involving generalists and specialists. Again,
the results shown in Table 2 may lead to the con
clusion that Japanese companies prefer to hiring
foreign employees with special abilities, and thus
companies favor specialists in making hiring deci
sions on foreign applicants. On the contrary, as is
well known, Japanese companies favor hiring
Japanese employees newly graduated from the
school and bring them up within the company. In
this way, Japanese companies want Japanese em
ployees to be generalists who can deal with broad
aspects of company responsibilities and job re
quirements, and will stay lifetime in the same
company.
A clear difference can be seen between com
pany's attitudes towards specialists and general
ists. This difference may lead some companies to
respond differently to Japanese (as generalists)
and to foreign employees (as specialists). Among
companies interviewed, some of them were consid
ering hiring foreign employees as regular employ
ees. These companies were trying to hire foreign
employees who agreed to accept the same terms
and conditions of employment as those of Japa
nese colleagues as regular employees with a guar
antee of life-time employement. On the contrary,
they were hiring those who do not accept the same
conditions as those of the Japanese regular em
ployees, on the basis of a contract with a limited
time period. In order to promote hiring practices
of foreign employees, this multiple selection of
employment contract may be one of the best solu
tions at the present stage of globalization.
IV. Conclusion
An ideal typical international company should
act in borderless across nations, races, and
Table 9. Employment conditions reported by the company
1. The same as Japanese colleagues' conditions 9*
2. Better than Japanese colleagues' conditions 1
3. Worse than Japanese colleagues' conditions 1
* All nine companies were actually paying extra allowanceswith the intention of helping the housing cost.
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iwnmn^mimmm
cultures. They should have an international phi
losophy that stands on an equal and fair basis. In
contrast, as seen in this survey, Japanese compa
nies do not seem to become truly internationalized
yet. For real internationalization, it is necessary
to respect differences in employees with different
cultural background. Japanese companies need to
pursue the internationalizatin of its business by
:onsidering the differences in cultural background
Dfforeign employees.
For the true internationalization of Japanese
companies, internationalization of personnel
management practices must be established. This
.s why it is significant to examine the internation
alization of personnel in Japanese companies
lere. All the companies interviewed were at the
stage of becoming aware of differences and simi-
arities among foreign employees. The foreign
employees were also at the same stage of learning
hese differences. Both parties will have to work
Dut many difficulties to seek a solution that is
nore agreeable for both of them. To do this, both
parties need to have flexible attitudes in order for
,hem to be able to pursue the same goals in the
corporate activities. Since some compromise may
)e required in order to achieve their goals, both of
hem should be able to work together and to share
he same company philosophy.
References
Japan Times 1989 Foreigners seen as 'Useful',
February 27.
Kaisha Society 1989 Tokyo kaisha society salary
survey, Kaisha Society.
The Economic Planning Agency 1988 Wagakuni
ni okeru gaikokujin koyo no jittai to mondai-
ten (The actual conditions of employment of
foreigners in Japan), Kikan Jinji Gyosei
Quarterly, 41.
The Ministry of Justice 1988 Wagakuni no
gaikokujin rodosha ukeire eno taio (The way
to respond to acceptance of foreign workers in
Japan), Kikan Jinji Gyosei Quarterly, 41.
The Specialist Committee on Foreign-National
Employees, The Research Committee on Hu
man Resource Management, Industry and La
bor Research Division, The Japanese Minis
try of Labor 1990 Gaikokujin Senmonshoku
Senmon Iinkai Hokokusho (A report on the
questionnaire survey on foreign national em
ployees of Japanese companies), The Minis
try of Labor.
(ip^4^4^20S§m, ¥l£4*P5jnO£SI)
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