Uniquely Japanese Job Interview Questions

On the surface, Japanese job interviews are a lot like Western ones, and the interviewers ask you the regular questions about where you worked before, your strengths and weaknesses, and the reason you applied for the job. But there are also a good number of questions that you’d probably never hear in other countries. When I changed jobs recently, I noticed that a lot of the questions I got asked dealt with how I felt about living and working in Japan, rather than focusing on my qualifications for the job. When Japanese companies hire a non-Japanese staff member, they’re often worried about whether the person will fit in with their coworkers, so there tend to be a lot of “Do-you-like-Japan?” type questions that are a really important part of their decision.

I think that there are two main things employers are worried about in Japan: 1) Is the person going to get along with his/her Japanese coworkers and not cause friction? and 2) Is the person going to stick around? When they ask you about what you like about Japan, what you think about working at a Japanese company, etc. they want to hear how much you know about Japanese business culture and make sure that you’re not going to head back to your home country in six months. Foreigners who have alienated all their Japanese coworkers, and people disappearing back to their home countries are huge problems, so it’s really important to convince a potential employer that you’re going to be able to get along with people and that you’re going to be around long enough to make it worth their while hiring and training you.
When I was helping do interviews at my old company, I sometimes heard  people saying they came to Japan because they wanted to date Japanese women or that something to keep in mind when working at a Japanese company is that Japanese people are uncreative. Obviously, this kind of answer isn’t going to make a good impression on a potential employer.

Below are some questions that often get asked at Japanese job interviews, sample answers, and important points to remember when answering. I don’t know if the answers are great or not, but I got a job in quite a competitive situation recently, so I hope  they’re at least worth reading.

Q. What do you think it is important for foreigners to keep in mind when working at a Japanese company?

Firefighters’ Ladder Tricks at the Takao Spring Festival

I’ve been wanting to see one of these performances of traditional fire-fighting techniques for years, but I always seem to miss them. Last weekend, I finally got to take one in at Mt. Takao’s Spring Festival, and it was really impressive.
Back in the Edo Period (1603-1868), fires were a huge problem in Japan. In Tokyo, they were called the Edo no Hana (flowers of Edo), and could kill tens of thousands of people and burn large sections of the city.

The pole with the white strips on it (below) is called a matoi, and it is actually a fire-fighting device. It would be soaked in water, and the firefighters would spin it around, and the spraying water and fan-effect would put out the flames or stop them from spreading. They are extremely heavy, and the operators, called matoi-mochi were the strongest men in the unit. They would line up on the edge of the roof and one man would weild it until he was exhausted or succumbed to smoke inhalation, and then the next man would take over.

The men who held  the ladders were called hashigo-mochi. The poles they carried were called tobiguchi, and here are being used to support the ladder. Modern firefighters try to put out fires, but in the Edo Period, the main work was done by tobi ninsoku, demolition experts, whose job was to use tobiguchi and other tools to destroy nearby buildings, creating firebreaks so that the flames would not spread.

These poses on the ladders aren’t just for show. They were used to let the other firefighters know about wind direction and progress of the fire so that the men below could decide where to build firebreaks and fight the flames most effectively.

If you look carefully, you’ll notice that this guy has a rope around his right foot.

The Takao Festival is held on the third Sunday in April every year. There is a parade of children in Heian Period costumes that starts from the ropeway station near the top of the mountain at 11:00. The ladder display starts at 12:00 at Yakuoin Temple. To get to Mt. Takao, take the Keio Line to Takao-san guchi (be careful because JR Takao Station is pretty far from the trail heads).

Tokyo’s most famous firefighting festival is called the Dezome-shiki, and is held every year on January 6. It has all kinds of high-tech fire-fighting equipment, a demonstration by an elite fire-fighting squad, as well as traditional ladder skills: http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/indepth/history/traditionalevents/a02_fes_dezome.html
There’s a video of the Dezome-shiki at: http://samuraidave.wordpress.com/category/hikeshi/. The ladder tricks start at about 2:20 into the video.
I found a very interesting-looking book called Taiho-jutsu: Law and Order in the Age of the Samurai online. You can read a very interesting explanation of firefighting in the Edo Period at: http://books.google.com/books?id=g5BP7DGuNFsC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=edo+firefighters+ladder&source=bl&ots=s28Zqo2lWb&sig=9EKpL0TC_OltZuXM1v1glr9CIZ4&hl=en&ei=bybzSZaAPNKLkAXWy933Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7#PPA13,M1

Professional taxi hailer

Despite the recession, Japanese companies continue to employ armies of useless people. Elevator girls, crossing guards at places with street lights, and human pylons waving people around construction sites are just a few of the incredibly easy jobs you can get in Japan.

The guy in this picture is a taxi hailer. He waits at a taxi stand and guides people into their taxis. It looks like he’s opening the door for a passenger, but actually all the taxi doors in Japan are operated by the driver, so he just puts his hand on it as it swings open.

Professional baby namer

The sign on this Osaka business says Akachan no nazuke (Baby Naming). This branch of Japanese fortunetelling invovlves helping parents choose a name for their baby that will bring him or her good fortune based on the number of strokes.

Bored Souvenir Seller

I guess selling souvenirs isn’t the most exciting job in the world.