{"id":12503,"date":"2014-07-10T11:35:49","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T21:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12503"},"modified":"2014-07-10T14:37:19","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T00:37:19","slug":"aera-july-14-2014-special-on-nj-in-j-globalized-companies-says-offices-without-nj-will-not-succeed-yet-again-panders-to-stereotypes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12503","title":{"rendered":"Asahi’s AERA Mag July 14, 2014: Special on NJ in J globalized companies, says “Offices without NJ will not succeed”. Yet again panders to stereotypes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. On the heels of our prior discussion about the Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s “scandal” about having the audacity to put a NJ as CEO of the company (shock horror! Think of how much the company will be compromised!, was the narrative),<\/a> here’s a special issue by left-leaning AERA magazine of July 14, put out by the (left-and-right-leaning, depending on the editor) Asahi News Corp, on Japan’s “global companies”. \u00a0Its\u00a0big headline is that offices that are not multinational in terms of staff “will not succeed”. (Somebody tell that to Takeda Pharma’s xenophobes!)<\/p>\n

\"Aera.0714\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Click on image to expand in browser. \u00a0Courtesy of MS.)<\/em><\/p>\n

You might think this is a forward-thinking move, but AERA\u00a0also resorts to the same old media tropes about NJ. \u00a0For example, it puns on the seminal TV show of more than a decade ago called “Koko Ga Hen Da Yo, Nihonjin<\/a><\/em>” with a bit on “Koko Ga Hen Da Yo<\/em>, Japanese workplaces”. \u00a0Not to appear dated, it also refers to Koko Ga Hen’s\u00a0current incarnation “YOU Wa Nani Shi Ni NIhon E”<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(What did YOU [sic] come to Japan to do?), with a poll of twenty<\/em>\u00a0(a scientifically-significant sample!! \/sarcasm) real-live NJ residents of Japan saying what they find unsatisfactory about Japan. \u00a0There’s also a discussion between two J pundits on immigration (yep; how about polling an immigrant?), a comparison between NJ transplant schools modeled on the Indian, Chinese, and Canadian education systems (why? \u00a0dunno), and the coup de grace — the influential Oguri Saori manga “Darling wa Gaikokujin<\/em>“<\/a>\u00a0being riffed on to talk about “Darling wa Damenzu Gaikokujin<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

This is about J women marrying NJ “Wrong men” (from a manga title, a polyglot word of Dame (J) \u00a0and Mens (E?)) who are penniless, unfaithful, or violent<\/a>\u00a0(and in this case, according to AERA, from less-economically-developed countries, viz<\/em>. the newly-coined word “kakusa-kon<\/em>“, or economically-tiered marriages),\u00a0because the NJ get a visa, and the women get\u00a0the relief (iyashi<\/em>) of having less to lose (financially or materially) after the breakup. Whaa….?<\/p>\n

Yep, even when we resort to the hackneyed stereotypical tropes (gotta love the swarthy smitten NJ in the illustration; clearly by the skin tone there’s kakusa<\/em> there), we still have to pander to prejudices by including some nasty ones.<\/p>\n

There’s more up there, so other comments? \u00a0Mine is that even if J companies take things to heart and hire more NJ employees, I’m worried that 1) like before, it’ll only be on a “contingency” basis (to take the NJ out for a test drive, meaning the hiring process is two-tiered and unequal, with less job security for the NJ), and 2) it’ll just happen because it’s “trendy”. \u00a0NJ have been hired as “pet gaijin” (as was common practice during the “Bubble Years”; I know) to show off how “international” the company has become, without ever allowing NJ employees\u00a0to play any real part in the company’s future. \u00a0Just plonking NJ in your office doesn’t necessarily mean much (until NJ become, for example, managers). \u00a0And when they do, the Takeda-styled soukaiya <\/em>mentioned last blog entry\u00a0will no doubt protest it anyway (if not fire you for doing the right thing about J-boss corruption, a la Olympus<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Sorry to rain on what may be a positive trend (I’d much rather have them acknowledge that J companies cannot remain insular than not, of course), but I’m not sure AERA is\u00a0encouraging real non-insularity. \u00a0Especially when even they can’t keep the discussion serious and refrain from painting NJ with negative stereotypes. \u00a0Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the heels of our prior discussion about the Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s “scandal” about having the audacity to put a NJ as CEO of the company (shock horror! Think of how much the company will be compromised!, was the narrative), here’s a special issue by left-leaning AERA magazine of July 14, put out by the (left-and-right-leaning, depending on the editor) Asahi News Corp, on Japan’s “global companies”. Its big headline is that offices that are not multinational in terms of staff “will not succeed”. (Somebody tell that to Takeda Pharma’s xenophobes!) [scan of magazine banner enclosed]<\/p>\n

You might think this is a forward-thinking move, but AERA also resorts to the same old media tropes about NJ. For example, it puns on the seminal TV show of more than a decade ago called “Koko Ga Hen Da Yo, Nihonjin” with a bit on “Koko Ga Hen Da Yo, Japanese workplaces”. Not to appear dated, it also refers to Koko Ga Hen’s current incarnation “YOU Wa Nani Shi Ni NIhon E” (What did YOU [sic] come to Japan to do?), with a poll of twenty (a scientifically-significant sample!! \/sarcasm) real-live NJ residents of Japan saying what they find unsatisfactory about Japan. There’s also a discussion between two J pundits on immigration (yep; how about polling an immigrant?), a comparison between NJ transplant schools modeled on the Indian, Chinese, and Canadian education systems (why? dunno), and the coup de grace — the influential Oguri Saori manga “Darling wa Gaikokujin” being riffed on to talk about “Darling wa Damenzu Gaikokujin”.<\/p>\n

This is about J women marrying NJ “Wrong men” (from a manga title, a polyglot word of Dame (J) and Mens (E?)) who are penniless, unfaithful, or violent (and in this case, according to AERA, from less-economically-developed countries, viz. the newly-coined word “kakusa-kon”, or economically-tiered marriages), because the NJ get a visa, and the women get the relief (iyashi) of having less to lose (financially or materially) after the breakup. Whaa….?<\/p>\n

Yep, even when we resort to the hackneyed stereotypical tropes (gotta love the swarthy smitten NJ in the illustration; clearly by the skin tone there’s kakusa there), we still have to pander to prejudices by including some nasty ones.<\/p>\n

There’s more up there, so other comments? Mine is that even if J companies take things to heart and hire more NJ employees, I’m worried that 1) like before, it’ll only be on a “contingency” basis (to take the NJ out for a test drive, meaning the hiring process is two-tiered and unequal, with less job security for the NJ), and 2) it’ll just happen because it’s “trendy”. NJ have been hired as “pet gaijin” (as was common practice during the “Bubble Years”; I know) to show off how “international” the company has become, without ever allowing NJ employees to play any real part in the company’s future. Just plonking NJ in your office doesn’t necessarily mean much (until NJ become, for example, managers). And when they do, the Takeda-styled soukaiya mentioned last blog entry will no doubt protest it anyway (if not fire you for doing the right thing about J-boss corruption, a la Olympus).<\/p>\n

Sorry to rain on what may be a positive trend (I’d much rather have them acknowledge that J companies cannot remain insular than not, of course), but I’m not sure AERA is encouraging real non-insularity. Especially when even they can’t keep the discussion serious and refrain from painting NJ with negative stereotypes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,19,26,16,13,11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-issue","category-education","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-labor-issues","category-media","category-problematic-foreign-treatment","category-8"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}