在日本工作和在中国工作有什么不同?

Nell Zhang, Differences make the world fun.
Being a Chinese who has working experience in both China and Japan, here is some of my personal observations, please take it with a grain of salt :
Office politics aside, (it happens in both countries, of course, as well as in any other countries) imagine employee A and B.
A is smart and can-do but pretty “lazy”. He often rushes into the office in the last minute in the morning. He never does overtime, and never needs to- he always has tasks done perfectly, much earlier before it is due, which is why you can often see him net surfing or Skype chatting.

作为一个在中国和日本都有工作经验的中国人，以下是我的一些个人看法，请对我的话持保留态度。
抛开办公室政治不谈，想象一下有两个员工，员工A和员工B。
A很聪明，也很能干，但很“懒”。他经常在早上最后一分钟冲进办公室。他从不加班，也不需要加班——他总是把任务完美地完成，比截止日期早得多，这就是为什么你经常看到他上网或在Skype上聊天。

B works very hard but unfortunately, is not particularly skilled. B arrives at the office at 8:30am everyday and usually leaves the office at 9:30pm, sometimes works in weekends. He gives average performance, not perfect but okay. Sometimes he can not hand in the report on the very time, but he always tries his best to meet the ends.
Now what would their performance uation be like?
In a typical Japanese company, in most cases, B would be considered a qualified employee. He would have an average or even above career path, and would gain some respect from other coworkers. And A? He would not be liked too much, quite the opposite. Some managers and coworkers would doubt his work ethic and attitude, in many cases he would be isolated- certainly not a bright future.

B工作很努力，但不幸的是，他没有特别的技能。B每天早上八点半到办公室，晚上九点半下班，有时周末还加班。他的表现一般，不完美，但还行。有时他不能准时交报告，但他总是尽力按时交。
那么他们的绩效评估是怎样的呢?
在一个典型的日本公司里，在大多数情况下，B会被认为是一个合格的员工。他的职业生涯将达到平均水平，甚至更高，并且会从其他同事那里获得一些尊重。而A呢?他不会太受欢迎，恰恰相反。一些经理和同事会怀疑他的职业道德和工作态度，在很多情况下，他会被孤立——这肯定不是一个光明的未来。

Want to hear the opposite scenario? Welcome to China!
There is a famous Chinese saying which describes the majority of Chinese companies’ culture- “It doesn’t matter if it’s a white cat or a black cat, a cat that can catch rats is a good cat!” It ROUGHLY means- “I don’t care how you do it, how much time you spend on it, how much efforts you put in, which means you use, if the means are good or not… as long as you give me a good RESULT, you are good!”
Such a gap often causes culture shocks on both sides- Chinese who work in Japan and Japanese who work in China.

想听听相反的情况吗?欢迎到中国来!
中国有一句著名的谚语，描述了大多数中国公司的文化——“白猫黑猫，抓得住老鼠的猫就是好猫!”它的大致意思是:“我不在乎你是怎么做的，不在乎你花了多少时间，投入了多少努力，不管你用了什么方法，也不管你用的方法是好是坏……只要你给我一个好的结果，你就是优秀的!”
这种差距往往会引发双方——在日本工作的中国人和在中国工作的日本人——的文化冲突。

Some of my Japanese coworkers who work in a Chinese joint venture used to keep their Japanese style working habit- work long hours, make super detailed paper work full of numbers, report literally everything to the boss… Then they got blamed by the Chinese general manager- “Don’t bother me with those useless papers, don’t waste my time on endless meetings. How to do it is YOUR job. Just show me you DID it.” They found out no matter how much efforts they put in, as long as the result is BAD, the efforts would be considered as nothing, and any reason would be considered as excuses.

我的一些日本同事在中国合资企业工作时常常保持着他们的日本风格的工作习惯,工作时间很长,制作满目都是数字的巨细靡遗的纸面工作,向老板报告一切事情……然后他们受到了中国总经理的指责——“别拿那堆无用的文件来烦我,不要把我的时间浪费在没完没了的会议上。如何做是你的工作。让我看到你的成果。”他们发现，无论他们付出了多少努力，只要结果是坏的，努力就会被视为没有任何意义，任何理由都会被视为借口。

One of my Chinese coworkers (an IT guy) who received a training in Japanese head office got reported by his trainer, because he “played with his cellphone at working time.” He couldn’t understand why it was wrong since he already did a good job on the training project. The funny thing is the Chinese HR manager who was supposed to give him a warning could not give a good explanation either. She said, “You can’t do that. You know, it’s Japan.”
Process-focus Japanese and Result-focus Chinese, I feel they come from Mars and Venus.

我的一个中国同事(IT人员)在日本总部接受了培训，他的培训师举报了他，因为他“在工作时间玩手机”。他不明白为什么这是错误的，因为他在培训项目上已经做得很好了。有趣的是，中国的人力资源经理本应该给他一个警告，但她也说不出一个好的解释。她说:“你不能这么做。你知道，这是日本。”
注重过程的日本人和注重结果的中国人，我觉得他们分别来自火星和金星。

I feel other differences too:
The HR system. Equalitarianism and seniority in Japan. Performance-only-matters company values in China. My coworkers often jokingly say “China is a capitalist country with a name of socialist; Japan is a socialist country with a name of capitalist”.

我还感觉到了其他的不同之处:
人力资源系统。
日本的平均主义和论资排辈。在中国，业绩只关系到公司价值。我的同事经常开玩笑说:“中国是一个叫社会主义的资本主义国家;日本是一个叫资本主义的社会主义国家”。

Data-and-detail-lover Japanese VS Data-and-detail-hater Chinese. A typical Japanese style business report format is an A3 paper, full of numbers, charts, with a super small font size, make you admire and dizzy. Still your Japanese boss will always find out any typos or inconsistent borders. Get ready to revise it at least 3 times. A typical Chinese style business report format is… well, in most cases (if it’s not an outward-facing presentation), you don’t need to make it. Your Chinese boss has no interest to read it anyway. Talk to your boss, better smoking together, in 5 minutes, that’s it. You will get a clear yes or no.

喜欢数据和细节的日本人VS讨厌数据和细节的中国人。典型的日文商务报告格式是A3纸，全是数字和图表，字体很小，让人眼花缭乱。然而，你的日本老板总是能发现任何一个错别字或前后排版不一致。你要做好准备至少要修改3次。一个典型的中国式商业报告的格式是……嗯，在大多数情况下(如果不是面向外部的报告)，你不需要这样做。反正你的中国老板也没兴趣看。和你的老板谈谈，最好和他一起抽烟，5分钟，就这样。你会得到一个明确的答案是或不是。

Risk-hater Japanese VS Risk-lover Chinese. My Japanese boss’s catch phrase is “What do you think about the risks?” And my Chinese boss’s response?- “Risks mean bad things not happened yet right? Let’s talk about them when they happen.”
Silent Japanese VS talkative Chinese. My Japanese coworkers generally don’t like speech too much. When they need to do a presentation, they often make a super detailed Power Point and read it word by word. Some Chinese leaders from the head office can give a whole 2 hours speech without a text, and amazingly, when you seriously think about the content, you will find… no real content there.

厌恶风险的日本人VS热爱风险的中国人。我的日本老板的口头禅是“你认为风险在哪里?”我的中国老板的反应呢?——“风险意味着糟糕的事情还没有发生，对吗?”等风险发生了，我们再谈吧。”
沉默的日本人VS健谈的中国人。我的日本同事通常不太喜欢说话。当他们需要做演示时，他们通常会做一个非常详细的ppt，然后逐字逐句地阅读。一些来自中国总部的领导可以在没有文稿的情况下发表整整两个小时的演讲，令人惊讶的是，当你认真思考演讲的内容时，你会发现……没有真正的内容。

The list would go on and on.
Those differences always amaze me. From them, I guess the reason why Japanese products can KEEP a high stable QUALITY for so many years. I guess the reason why Chinese enterprises can DEVELOP unbelievable FAST.
I learned much from the differences.

这样的例子不胜枚举。
这些差异总是让我感到惊讶。从他们身上，我猜出了日本产品能保持这么多年高质量的原因。我也猜出了中国企业能发展得如此之快的原因。
我从这些差异中学到了很多。

P.S. In this answer I used many generalization to make things simpler. Surely there are huge huge diversities among companies and individuals. And thanks for the reading!

在这个回答中，我使用了许多一般化的方法来简化问题。当然，公司和个人之间存在着巨大的差异。感谢您的阅读!

Profile photo for Ryan Chew
Very apt descxtion. One of my customers, a teapot manufacturer, told me a joke:
Give a japanese teapot maker a month, and he’ll produce the most exquisitely beautiful teapot in the world.
Give a Chinese teapot manufacturer a month, and he’ll produce 3 production lines of teapots with multiple designs and colors and a special hello kitty edition teapot for the kids.

非常贴切的描述。我的一个客户，一个茶壶制造商，给我讲了一个笑话:
给一个日本茶壶制造商一个月的时间，他就能生产出世界上最精美美丽的茶壶。
给一个中国茶壶制造商一个月的时间，他会生产出三条不同设计和颜色的茶壶生产线和一个特别的hello kitty版的孩子茶壶。

Profile photo for Nell Zhang
Haha so very true. Though hello kitty character is also from Japan. Well, that's another punchline. 

哈哈，非常正确。虽然hello kitty的角色也来自日本。嗯，这又是一个笑点。

Ryan Dion
I can vouch for this answer! Spot on. I worked in China for 3 years, there's a Japanese guy in my office and he used to be exactly what you described for a typical Japanese worker, then his attitude changed to be more laid back and relaxed in China, following Chinese style.
Whereas my Chinese general manager only cares about the big picture, she doesn't give a flying arse about details, which sometimes mind boggling for us foreigners with her overly confident ‘it'll be alright’ attitude. Though, it sometimes creates some issues, generally things get done.
Funny thing is, now the Japanese guy has gone back to Tokyo and experiences massive reverse culture shock, he's been posting about how he's been feeling excessively on Facebook.

我可以担保这个回答是真的!现身说法。我在中国工作了3年，我的办公室里有一个日本人，他的行事作风一度就是你描述的那种典型的日本员工，然后他的态度在中国变得更加悠闲和放松，遵循了中国的做事风格。
而我的中国总经理只关心大局，她不关心细节，这让我们外国人有时感到难以置信，因为她的态度过于自信，“一切都会好的”。虽然，这样有时会产生一些问题，但通常情况下，事情是可以完成的。
有趣的是，现在这个日本人回到了东京，经历了巨大的反向文化冲击，他在Facebook上发布了他感受到的深刻变化。

Nell Zhang
Thanks for the vouch, Ryan! ^^
Oh yes yes yes! My Japanese coworkers who work in China for long enjoy so much working in such a “loose” place, disappear from the office right at 5:30pm, answer the cellphone anytime anywhere, joke around and share snacks with coworkers… then they started to fear the transfer back to Japan.

谢谢你的担保，瑞恩!＾＾
哦，对对对!我的日本同事长期在中国工作，他们喜欢在这样一个“宽松”的地方工作，下午5:30就从办公室消失，随时随地接手机，开玩笑，和同事分享零食，然后他们开始害怕被调回日本。

Bertrand Denard
You have perfectly described the concept of “chabuduo”. That's why Chinese people are often satisfied with mediocrity..

你很好地描述了“差不多”的概念。这就是为什么中国人总是甘于平庸。

Effweye Young
Not satisfied with mediocrity, but the ability to distinguish between what requires meticulous precision, i.e. Chinese Space Station, super computers, Olympics Opening Ceremony, versus what requires only adequate attention, i.e. the disposable place mat at a fast food restaurant (does it really need to be printed perfectly?), a $5 T-Shirt that you will only wear for one summer, the $10 digital watch that only wear when doing manual labor work.

并非满足于平庸，而是有能力区分需要细致精确的东西，比如中国空间站、超级计算机、奥运会开幕式，和只需要恰当关注的东西，比如快餐店的一次性餐垫(真的需要打印完美吗?)5美元的t恤，只能穿一个夏天，10美元的电子表，只能在做体力劳动时戴。

Anonymous
I worked in Japan, the US and I 2nd you. Being aggressive or dedicated to your work or performance leads you to isolation in Japan. I'm not sure if it's the same to Japanese staff. However, after staying in Japan for years, I'm afraid that I can't adjust to the world outside of it.

我曾在日本、美国工作过。在日本，积极进取或专注于工作或爱表现会导致你被孤立。我不确定这对日本员工是否也一样适用。然而，在日本呆了这么多年，我恐怕不能适应外面的世界了。

Yes I also feel Japan has such a unique culture which requires much efforts to fit in. But once you truly deeply fit in, become “one of them”, it's also very hard to adjust to different cultures- I had even more “culture shock” from Japan to China than from China to Japan.

是的，我也觉得日本有如此独特的文化，需要付出很多努力才能融入。但一旦你真正融入其中，成为“其中一员”，就很难适应不同的文化——从日本到中国，我经历的“文化冲击”甚至比从中国到日本还要多。

Daniel Calto
This is really a great summary, although of course individuals can differ. I would also say Chinese office politics is much more cutthroat than Japanese office politics— becuase of clear rules of the game in Japan vs. no rules at all in China. Also, backstabbing and scheming can be intense in a Chinese office.
Reading this convinced me that Americans work a lot closer to the Chinese style than the Japanese style. There’s probably more structure and preparation in the US then in China, but mostly people are also judged by results—which is why you can often see 35 year olds managing 50 year olds in the US.
If a salesperson is kind of a jerk, as long as he or she is hitting their numbers, they are mostly left alone—if not, all of their personality flaws will suddenly matter a lot to their bosses and HR. Of course, like Chinese and Japanese alike, we like to have colleagues that are decent and friendly people if possible.

这确实是一个很好的总结，尽管每个人都有不同的感受。但我还是想说，中国的办公室政治比日本的办公室政治要残酷得多——因为日本的游戏规则很明确，而中国则没有规则。此外，在中国的办公室里，背后中伤和阴谋可能会很激烈。
读了这篇文章，我确信美国人的工作方式更接近中国而不是日本。美国可能比中国有更多的构思和准备，但大多数人也是根据结果来判断的——这就是为什么在美国你经常能看到35岁的人管理50岁的人。
即便销售人员是一个混蛋，只要他或她完成了他们的销售量，就没人会管他们——如果不是，他们所有的人格缺陷会突然对他们的老板和HR产生很大的影响。当然，就像中国人和日本人一样，如果可能的话，我们希望有正派和友好的同事。

Xuanzi Zerene (Еремей Сенько)
imo, Japanese work culture can be far too wasteful… at least in terms of hours and busywork.
other points are good tho. Being a craftsman in Japan for example.
I think the chinese approach can be really good at its core, but sometimes on the negative its not realistic if something literally can’t be accomplished. 

在我看来，日本的工作文化太浪费了，至少在时间和繁忙的工作方面是如此。
不过其他选择也不错。比如在日本做一名工匠。
我认为中国的方法在本质上确实很好，但从消极的方面来说，如果事情真的无法完成，那就不现实了。

Victor Lee
The analysis is spot on!
Couldn't have said it better myself.
On a side note, what you described about Chinese companies is true actually for the whole corporate world: “I don’t care how you do it, as long as the obxtive is achieved”.

分析的完全正确!
我自己也不能说得比这更好。
顺便说一句，你对中国企业的描述实际上适用于整个企业界:“我不在乎你怎么做，只要目标实现了就行。”

Nell Zhang
Thank you, Victor.
I guess the result-focusing corporate culture may be one of the features of capitalism.
In a bigger span of human history, process-focusing may suit another stage of human development, when we have more than enough material and resource. The most precious and valuable thing may become human time, aka the life itself.

谢谢你,维克多。
我想注重结果的企业文化可能是资本主义的特征之一。
在人类历史的更大跨度中，当我们拥有足够的物质和资源时，聚焦过程可能适合人类发展的另一个阶段。最宝贵、最有价值的东西可能就是人的时间，也就是生命本身。

Jayesh Lalwani
I thought 996 culture was common in China. Your answer gives an opposite view

我认为996文化在中国很普遍。你的回答给出了相反的观点。

Nell Zhang
Yes this word 996 became really hot lately on internet. Still, 99% of the Chinese salary-men/women I know of (basically everybody in my current life) don't usually do long time over time. And the rest 1%? They definitely do 996. And all of them work in IT fields.
So here is my guess:
996 seems became a new norm in Chinese IT fields. Although it's not really common in other fields nor Chinese working culture as a whole (especially comparing to Japan), IT people may have bigger voice on the internet hence 996 became a hot topic.
kind of a "survivor bias".
Just my personal guess based

是的，“996”这个词最近在网上很火。尽管如此，我所认识的99%的中国工薪族(基本上是我目前生活中的所有人)通常不会长时间工作。剩下的1%呢?他们确实是996工作制。他们都在IT领域工作。
以下是我的猜测:
“996”似乎已成为中国IT行业的新标准。尽管996在其他领域和中国的工作文化中并不普遍(特别是与日本相比)，it人士在互联网上可能有更大的发言权，因此996成为了一个热门话题。
一种“幸存者偏差”。
这只是我个人的猜测。

Yì Yáng
996 is common in IT, but not universal.
And I don’t think this is a culture that can last long. The Chinese IT industry is annoyingly young. The capitalists are basically exploiting the energy of young and unmarried or childless people. Once we have a whole generation of 40+ programmers things should change.

996在IT中很常见，但并不普遍。
我认为这种文化不会持续太久。恼人的是，中国IT行业还很年轻。资本家基本上是在剥削年轻人、未婚者或无子女者的精力。一旦我们有了40+年龄的程序员阶层，这种状况就应该要有所改变了。

Jeff Worst
I worked in Japan for over 7 years and this is spot on. I personally enjoyed working in Japan much more when I was working for a foreign company (I worked at investment banks in IT). Outside of work, the regular folks you meet are really nice and I had little difficulty fitting in with the general society.

我在日本工作了7年多，你说的很正确。我个人更喜欢在日本工作时，我在一家外国公司工作(我在投资银行的IT部门工作)。工作之余，你遇到的普通朋友都很好，我能轻而易举地融入社会之中。

Nell Zhang
Thank you for the reading and the encouragement!
I like living in Japan too, despite of difficulties. The unique experience and super amazing friends I made in Japan is the treasure of my life.

感谢您的阅读和鼓励!
我也喜欢住在日本，尽管困难重重。在日本的独特经历和结交的超级棒的朋友是我生命中的财富。

J.M. Adams
thanks, very interesting!
I'm just a little curious because (except for the very end) from what you wrote i would expect the chinese way to be much more successful, but the japanese economy and it's companies seem clearly more successful….

谢谢,非常有趣!
我只是有点好奇，因为(除了最后一段)从你写的内容来看，我认为中国的方式会更成功，但日本的经济和公司似乎明显更成功....

Nell Zhang
Wow that's a good point!
Actually I have wondered it too, and as a layman (well, laywoman) of economics, this is something I GUESSED:
China started modern industry and capitalist market economic system much later than Japan. Chinese companies are somehow still relatively “newbies”.

哇，说得好!
事实上，我也想过这个问题，作为一个经济学门外汉，以下是我的猜想:
中国开始现代工业和资本主义市场经济体制的时间比日本晚得多。从某种程度上说，中国企业相对而言仍是“新手”。

Manufacturing industries has played the leader role in past era. And Japanese culture very much focuses this “craftsman spirit” and highly values hard working. This culture greatly helped Japanese companies make world top class high quality cars/ electrics/ machines etc. Chinese enterprises generally focus on “money making” more than “products making”- which requires high efficiency and short term cash flow, and leads to more M&A and diversification. You can see all kinds of e commerce in China but very rare in Japan.

制造业在过去的时代扮演了领导者的角色。日本文化非常注重这种“工匠精神”，高度重视努力工作。这种文化极大地帮助了日本公司制造世界顶级的高质量汽车/电器/机器等。中国企业通常更注重“赚钱”而不是“制造产品”，这需要高效率和短期现金流，并导致更多的并购和多元化。在中国你可以看到各种各样的电子商务，但在日本却很少见。

Japanese companies are often known by their products, and keep making the products for, say 50 years unchanged; Chinese companies may have no well-known products but make good money, and keep investing the money to new multiple business.
So one point is, I guess, when we talk about “successful”, the definition may vary. Japanese companies are like world famous craftsman or artists. And Chinese companies are like, well, they truly ARE businessmen. In company brand, Japan beats China. In GDP growth, China beats Japan. It's hard to say which one is more successful.

日本公司通常因为他们的产品而为人所知，并一直在生产产品，常常50年不变;中国公司可能没有知名的产品，但赚了很多钱，并不断把钱投资到新的多元化业务上。
所以我想，当我们谈到“成功”的时候，定义可能会有所不同。日本公司就像世界著名的工匠或艺术家。中国公司就像，嗯，他们真的是商人。在企业品牌方面，日本胜过中国。在GDP增长方面，中国超过了日本。很难说哪一个更成功。

Ben Smith (スミス ベン)
As an American resident in Japan I’d say your summary of Japanese work ethic is pretty accurate, and I daresay that the work ethic you described of China is quite similar to that of the U.S.- highly result-oriented, merit-based. Could not be any more of a contrast to Japan!

作为一个居住在日本的美国人，我认为你对日本人职业道德的总结是非常准确的，我敢说你所描述的中国的职业道德与美国非常相似——高度结果导向，以业绩为基础。这与日本形成了鲜明对比!

Ahad Naqvi
In that case, I love the Chinese working culture. The Pakistani working culture is similar to Japan which I believe stifles growth. 

在这种情况下，我喜欢中国的工作文化。巴基斯坦的工作文化与日本相似，我认为这扼杀了经济增长。