日本人は固まる民族だ。

Two weeks have passed since I’ve boarded the island of Japan. A very short time indeed, but it feels more like a light year: quick yet significant.

This is my lesson for the month – it took me one afternoon doing problem-solving (graduate training) and 20-odd years to learn this, but here I am. It proves me that, although I thought I knew Japan, there are still so many things left to learn about its people.

「日本人は固まる民族だ。」 “Japanese are a people that huddle together”.

There is no question that even in a state of war, the Japanese would still be the opposite of the Hobbesian solitary man. Thus, what I’ve learnt during that problem-solving class is that Japanese people excel at “teamworking” and that it is as vital to society as olive oil and tomatoes are to Italians.

Here’s the scenario (distinctive Japanese-HR flavour to it) we were given during our problem-solving class and how things unfold from there:

“A newly assumed employee (us?) works in an impeccable manner but does not take any initiatives – once done with his task, he idles until he is assigned a new task by his superior. What should his superior do?”

We are given a few hours to resolve this problem.

As we are split in groups of 6, we somehow chose a leader and time-keeper within the next minute. As I tell them I have problems reading the scenario (maudits Kanji!), they all agree to read it out loud for me. I think that in Europe I would have been trashed somewhere. Then comes the brainstorm; people think out loud, ask questions which are answered, give advices which are well received, take turns to pencil what’s being said. When A corrects B’s mistake, B does not take it personally – he even apologises for his error!

As I sit quietly in my corner, they try to involve me in the task. But I don’t see any big issue in the scenario.  When the time comes to do a presentation of our solutions, the group assigns each one of us a part through rock-paper-scissors. We all rehearse once before giving our talk.

I’m sooo impressed, as I’ve never seen people work so well together.

According to my new colleagues, Japanese people love being in a group. Teamwork is the glue that sticks this whole society together. I assume that this is so because Japanese society is so fundamentally risk-averse (earthquake drills are done since kindergarten!).

Its beautiful seeing things going so smoothly thanks to teamwork (trains, bureaucracy, work), but this has its drawbacks. For instance, it is notoriously difficult to rely on their sense of individuality to change public opinion. Or make them say what they really think. People go with the tide – whether it’s their love for Krespe Kreme Doughnuts (boom in '09) or their blind support for the death penalty (85%, 2012), there is little place for overt individualism to shine through. There is an old phrase that says that “the nail that sticks out gets hammered in, the best policy is to keep your head down”.