How is working in an office in Japan like?

I have worked in the same companies for more than 5 years after graduating an university, but I have lots of opportunities to listen to people from other companies through friends or businesses.
As an office worker, I would like to share some typical Japanese company cultures.

Smoking is still a strong communication tool.

Although Japan’s regulations on smoking getting more and more strict like other developed countries, smoking can be a business communication tool in many Japanese companies.

Workers who smoke take a “ciggy break” in a smoking space and exchange information and use it for networking in working hours.

Management meeting is a place to get official “yes”.

Often times, when people want an approval from decision makers, for example, for system development, investments, establish a subsidiary or starting new service, companies require to join and explain in a management meeting.
Management members deliberate on items to be approved.

However, that deliberations are already done before the management meeting is held.

They get oral approval from key persons beforehand in many cases so that they do not need to retry the deliberations. Management meetings are just a place to give an official “yes”.

Fax is still existed and used.

Many Japanese companies still use fax to communicate with their clients.
I thought the company I work for did not use fax at all when I just entered the company because it is a IT company but some departments of the company still use fax to communicate with service users.

Different department=Different country

Each department have different atmosphere, culture and rules.

I’d like to take my company as an example.
There are different style of morning meeting (We often have a short meeting before starting to work to share plans on the day.).
Some require one of the members to have a 1 mins talk and some take like more than 15 mins and some take only 3 mins.

It’s not my company but there are some companies that have easy exercise with everyone. It’s so funny and I never ever want to join it…

Ending

There are lots of unique company cultures in Japan.
It is too unique that some fits perfectly and some don’t at all and suffer.

If you want a work experience in Japan, I recommend you to find and choose a company that have nice people.
Human relationship is definitely a key factor that makes your experience a good one.