Making friends within companies in Japan
Life in Japan and friends
Life in Japan would be much better if you had friends to enjoy it with. If you just moved to Japan or been living in Japan but struggling making friends in Japan, this article will introduce 4 ways in which you can make friends. We will mainly focus on how to get along with coworkers in the corporate environment in Japan. Japan’s work environment and culture is unique and may be different from what you may experience in other parts of the world. Therefore, it is important to know what lines you should not cross and subtle signs that coworkers show when trying to get along with them.
Company environment and friends
In Japan, making friends at company may not be the same way you make friends in other countries. What you need to know about the life in Japan, is that Japanese people tend to work long hours. Therefore, you will have less time to make friends outside of work. Japan has many national holidays, 16 days to be exact and that is more than the U.S. where the days of national holidays are 11 days. However, in most companies located in Japan, you will feel a great amount of peer pressure if you try to leave the office earlier than others (especially your superiors.) which makes it hard to leave the office on time.
This situation may differ depending on the job type. However, if you are employed as a full time employee and planning to work at a traditional Japanese company, you may expect working an extra 1~2 hours everyday at the minimum. If you also consider the possibility that you will get invited to drinks from your coworkers, you might have no time at all other than weekends to expand your list of friends.
4 ways you can make friends in Japanese companies
Participate in drinking events
In Japan, depending on the company you work at, your coworkers may ask you to go for a drink. It is up to you to participate in the event or not, but this can be a great opportunity for you to get along with your coworkers. If you want to learn more about the relationship between work and drinking culture in Japan, you should have a look at this article.
Japanese salary man and drinking culture. Do workers in Japan drink a lot?
However, when participating in drinking events, you must keep in mind that the you still need to behave according to your job role, position. This means, you cannot talk to your boss frankly like just some random person you meet at a bar. You will need to respect his title and cannot behave in a rude way. Of course, how you behave is up to you, but you still need to work with that person the next day in office. As part of the Japanese tradition, Japanese salaryman expects you to serve salads, to your boss and coworkers and offer beer if you noticed that their glass is empty. If you want to learn more about manners in Japan’s corporate environment, have a look at this article.
Complete guide to manners for doing business with Japanese companies
Because there is peer pressure, and untold rules you have to obey during drinking events held by the coworkers, a lot of salaryman in Japan are starting to avoid participating in such events. You should participate only when you feel like it, and not because you feel like you have to go.
Be friends with people who joined at the same time
In Japan, there is a tradition, where companies will try and hire new graduates in massive head-counts. Therefore, in a lot of Japanese organizations, they tend to get along most with the people who entered the company at the same timing. Usually in Japan, there is a period of time where new graduates are educated about the system of the company and how to do their jobs. This period in traditional Japanese organization extends to about a year or two and as short as 1 month at foreign companies located in Japan. If you want to learn more about the how and when companies in Japan hire, have a look at this article.
【2021】Job hunting schedule for new grads in Japan
In Japan, the network of people who joined at the same timing is called Douki（同期）and is heavily valued and utilized to get information from other department or job roles. For example, if you work at a marketing department but do not have the necessary data to make a marketing plan, you can just contact your Douki. Instead of going through the official procedure of retrieving data, it is much faster to ask your Douki who works in the Data Analysis department.
Since you spend some time together and go through same situation when joining a company, it is the perfect timing to get along with each other. Not only will you make friends who you could talk about something non-related to work, but you will be able to have someone to contact in the future, when you need help with your work.
Make casual chat groups
If you are working remotely it may be hard to meet coworkers in real life. In Japan, a lot of companies use communication tools in office such as Slack and Chatwork (In some cases, company may use other services provided by Microsoft or Google or other companies). Instead of using email to ask questions, more and more companies are starting to use chat tools to make quick report or discussion. This is a good way to communicate with your peers because it is quick and does not require a formal template.
However, even using a chat tool may be too formal if you want to get along with another employee. As long as you are using a chat tool provided by the company, you always feel an association with work as you communicate with one another. Therefore, it might be better to use an app such as Line or Facebook messenger instead. Some Japanese people don’t want you to be stepping into their private life so much, so you might not be able to get their Line contacts. In those cases, stick with the communication tools provided by the company and do not be too pushy.
Bring souvenirs to the office
If you are coming to the office after a small vacation, you can bring back souvenirs from your trip to hand out to your peers. Small chocolates or key holders are always welcomed. Do not give out different souvenirs depending on the person, and keep the budget low. (Should be approximately under ¥1000 for each coworker) Giving small gifts are great ways to break the ice, and this technique is useful even in Japan as well.
Enjoy both private and work life in Japan!
Your work life will take up a lot of your daily life in Japan. In order to make the best time out of your stay in Japan, you should definitely try to find a way to get along with your coworkers!
