I don't speak Japanese. This was in America and most of the people there were American. Less than twenty percent of the people were Japanese and they all spoke English to some extent.
The cultural differences were very strong. I think my American Vice President struggled to understand what my Japanese President wanted him to do and I wasn't because of language.
I will say that all the executives at this company worked harder than any American executives I've seen. It seemed like the VP that sat by me ran the whole facility from our conference room. He was in meetings there all day with one department after the other. He gave me his personal phone number and told me to call him if ever I needed anything.
I remember one of the Japanese Vice Presidents saying he had to go to a two hour meeting at five o'clock Friday afternoon to find out weather he needed to come to work on Saturday. All of the Japanese execs went out together after work.
Ah, cool. I don't speak it either. Not very well. I spent a month there and everyone was understanding while I butchered their language like a retarded 5 year old. The opposite of the French dickheads in that way.
I generally liked the Japs but couldn't live there long term. From what I saw, the whites who lived over there were a bunch of fucking nerds.
I didn't work with them but I've heard plenty of what you describe. It's all about putting the team ahead of yourself. Plenty of drunken suits in Tokyo at the end of the workday too. What they don't show you in the tourist brochure is all the maybe 18yo hookers these dudes have on their arm.
We Americans tend to think of Japan as so advanced its barely asian. But mystery meat street food, a ho on every corner. It's asian alright.
