In one of many working stints in a broadcast firm, I had the pleasure of meeting a Japanese person, called Shimpei. Having studied in Singapore schools all of my life; it was very uncommon for me to meet and get to know Japanese people. Shimpei is a very quiet and reserved man and you hardly hear him raise his voice even when he is angry. This was extremely puzzling because in most parts of the world people tend to use vulgarities or at least raise their voice when they get angry. Hence, I found this really strange but I found out that it was part of their culture.
For one of the projects at work, which was a live broadcast of a local football game, I was assigned to work with Shimpei. I was excited and also anxious at the same time about working with Shimpei. I had heard that it was quite difficult to understand the way he did things. However, I felt that this was a good learning lesson for me. After all the initial discussions, I was to meet with Shimpei on the morning of 14 May at one of the local stadiums to discuss the positions of the cameras and the need for scaffolds for the broadcast of the game there. It was a morning that I would not forget any time soon. It was raining heavily that morning and due to poor visibility, there was a vehicle breakdown on the Pan Island Expressway. The vehicles were slowly inching forward but as time passed by, it seemed as if the bus I was on had hardly covered any more distance. I was getting panicky as even though there were still 30 minutes before I was to meet Shimpei, I had this bad feeling that I was going to be late. I tried calling Shimpei on his mobile but to no avail. Hence, I decided to jus drop Shimpei a SMS to inform him that I may be reaching late because of the torrential downpour. Traffic was still moving really slowly, annoying almost everybody on the bus, which was also evident from the motorists, some of whom were perpetually blaring their horns. Finally, I reached my destination and hurriedly got off the bus. By now, I was about 10 minutes late. I rushed to the stadium only to find that Shimpei was not there yet and I was quite relieved. After running to the stadium, I decided to take a seat and wait for Shimpei. Minutes were passing by and there was still no sign of Shimpei. Finally after waiting for 15 minutes, I decided to call him and ask him where he was. This time, he picked up his phone and in a rather agitated tone, he told me that he had left the stadium because he thought I was not coming. I told him that I tried calling him and even messaged him about the situation that I was in but he was having none of it. After hanging up the phone, I was quite puzzled and perturbed by his behaviour as I had messaged him that I was going to be late and that it was raining really heavily. I made my way back to the office and told some of the staff what had happened at the stadium. It was then that I learned that Japanese people are extremely particular about punctuality and having them to wait for you is a cardinal sin in their culture. I apologised to Shimpei after the incident and it was back to work as usual after that incident.
I had never known about this cultural norm as the culture in Singapore is a lot different. In Singapore, the other party usually waits for you and buying lunch or drinks always help alleviate the problem.From this experience alone, I realised that the Japanese have a very different culture compared to many of the other counties in our region. I learned more about the Japanese culture from this and also one of the important life lessons was that if you have a scheduled appointment, do not be late and try to leave a lot earlier then necessary. I could not have foreseen the weather on that day but I certainly could have left my home earlier and planned ahead for the unexpected change in weather.
Hi Ramandeep,
ReplyDeleteWhat puzzled me was that he did not receive your text saying the you would be late. I think maybe to him, he will not accept whatever reasons you give. If you say that you are suppose to be there at 10am, he expect you to be there at 10am without fail.
Well I am sure you have learnt a lot from this incident. Now that you understand that in the Japanese culture, it is not acceptable to be late. I think we should also cultivate the habit of not being late when we are meeting people, and it does not only apply to the Japanese culture.
Thanks for sharing this because I think everyone who reads this will be more aware and sensitive if we work with people from Japan.
Thanks. There were some other incidents that I learned along the way from him too and I feel that the Japanese have an extremely interesting culture. It is important to do extensive research on their culture if any of us works there some time in the future.
ReplyDeleteBut can a person be representative of the whole country? Maybe this particular person is extremely punctual and hates to wait for someone. Have you thought of it that way?
ReplyDeleteHey Nesrine,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. Initially, I felt that maybe it was just him. However, after checking with my colleagues who go to Japan quite often for work, I found out that timing and punctuality is something inherent in their culture. Sidetracking a bit, the Japanese are the only ones in the world who kick off whatever sporting event they have right on the dot. For example, if a match/game is supposed to kick off at 1930, it kicks off at 1930, not a second more or less. Furthermore, I think they have really accurate timings for their bullet trains too. In Singapore, if you see 3 minutes more before the train arrives on the television screen, it can vary from time to time. However, I heard in Japan they are really precise about such things. Maybe they have something with timing, punctuality and precision and hence they have come up with so many inventions. I feel that overall, they have a very interesting and unique culture and would definitely like to learn about them sometime in the near future.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a very detailed yet concise description, Ramandeep. I like the way you build up the drama by focusing on a description of the highway and the motorists blasting their horns. I also appreciate your portrait of Shimpei.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Nesrine raises a good point: how can you be sure that this is "cultural" and not just personal? I think you do a fairly good job of answering her concern in your follow up comment. (As an aside, I can validate what you conclude with many years of experience living in Japan. That experience allowed me to predict the ending of your tale before you even described it: Shimpei would leave the stadium, aggravated.)
I do have a efw suggestions for expression:
- Traffic was still moving really slowly, annoying almost everybody on the bus and was also evident from the motorists, some of whom were perpetually blaring their horns. >>> Traffic was still moving really slowly, annoying almost everybody on the bus, WHICH was also evident from the motorists, some of whom were perpetually blaring their horns.
-- I had never known about this culture... >>> I had never known about this cultural norm....
In any case, thank you for your effort!
Thank you so much for all the comments. Rally appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteHi Ramandeep,
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting experience! Would his reaction change if you had managed to inform him about the traffic situation earlier?
Are the Japanese really the only ones in the world to kick start sporting events on time? What happens in the rest of the world?
Hey Bernard,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment.
This is an interesting post on the concept of time in different cultures. The Japanese are extremly rigid when it comes to time but I suppose he might have waited if I managed to inform him earlier.(not waiting would really be nasty I guess).
Yes. They are the only ones who kick start sporting events on time-they kick off exact to the seconds. This is not the case in other countries who are willing to give a certain buffer period of a few seconds and sometimes minutes depending on the situation. The Japanese are really calculated in this aspect. Currently, in the Rugby World Cup, I observed that they are trying to do this-and rather explicitly as there is this giant screen which counts down from 10 before the referee blows his whistle. I think it's something new because I don't quite remember them having this in the previous world cup. http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/01010/timeCultures.html
It is inevitable for any transport system to have a breach in their system due to 'unforeseen circumstances'. Being a victim myself, it is always heartening to have people who understands your predicament and empathize with you.
ReplyDeleteDiscipline is one thing. But, will it be better if one is more flexible?
Vanessa = Vivien btw, don't know why the computer is strange
ReplyDeletelol. I was freaked out... I went to Vanessa's profile and saw that it had not been updated since 2005...
ReplyDeleteBy the way, yes, i agree that a little bit of flexibility will go a long way in avoiding misunderstandings but more often than not, people's egos, principles etc comes in the way i feel.