Tuesday, November 16, 2004

long day....

Yesterday, I finished 2 big scheduled jobs. So it's on time. But it's not the end of it yet.. Since I attended a seminar today, I still have to prepare today's job the day before. So I brought my work at home... Yeah I thought I did.. But I realized ..I brought my memory stick...But forgot to bring the paper work!! Great..I couldn't work last nite...So I had to go to work a little bit earlier today instead.. Today I am at work at around 6:10am..then I started making coffee until 6:30am.. After that I distributed the booklet that was one of my yesterday's big scheduled work to the officer/manager. Then I started preparing the daily report ASAP. I thought I couldn't make it...but I finished it around 7:20am and was able to send these reports before I left for the seminar site.. It's not traffic at all.. So I got there 7:35am... So it was enough time before 8am. Our president and new manager made it before 8am, too.. So we all made the starting time.

Seminar started at 8am. and ended at 6pm..I just felt my eyes are a little tired because they used one of the hotel suite room, not conference room. Usually regular hotel room itself does not have bright lighting. So that's why the room lighting made my eyes a little tired. Other than that, I am totally fine. I didn't feel tired or sleepy at all.. It's a very interesting seminar. It is about hiring/employment. but the instructor was teaching us not only hiring/employment but US background & history and how US and Japan has different policies. So it's really good to know. I studied US Business law when I was taking the US CPA exam. But I really don't know how the US set up their laws from beginning..It was very interesting. As I mentioned before, my original major was journalism. But I changed my major to accounting. Truly said, my major is not only accouting. My majors are accounting, economics and law. I had 3 majors and had studied them equally. Since we don't have any option to choose several majors in Japan, not like US, I wrote accounting for graduation essay. So that became my main major. Anyway.. I learned law in college. So very interesting to hear his class. I can't write everything what he talked.. But I can write briefly specially the difference between Japan and US law.. How different?

1. US is a developing country. Japan is a matured country because of its history.US history is just 230 years after it founded compared to Japan's 1400 years.

2. US's employment style is at will. So Employer can cut people anytime. Employee can quit anytime. However Japan's a lifetime employment. I know we heard the lifetime employment is starting to collapse. But this style still exist in the society.

3. US is a competitive society. Japan runs on coexistence and co-prosperity society.

Japan has a lifetime employment as I said. The company's main purpose is not for profit. Main purpose is to secure employment. Lifetime employment generates company loyalty. Also they know employees don't have any place to go if one company goes bankrupt and it's hard to find a job specially after one reaches 35 years old. So companies tried to keep each other as long as they can. They still compete. But they just compete within the extent of not falling together. In other words, they are stuck to each other. So because of these reason, they can't do aggressive action.

US employment is at will. Employer can cut employee anytime. Employee can quit anytime as I said. People have a chance to find a job easily in the US. Due to a competing society, the company's main purpose is making a profit. If they can't make a profit, they do layoffs easily due to at will employment. As I also said, US is still a developing country. Their actions can be more aggressive.

It might be an extreme idea.. But it's all true.. That's what I thought, too before I came to the US.. Japan is not aggressive at all. Even in accounting.. When I learned both Japanese and American accounting, Japanese accounting has a very old theory.. they can't do immediate action.. but US...yes they can.. That difference made me really disappointed and thought why I still have to learn old theory?? So I came here to learn more about the aggressive theory..

I didn't mean I don't like Japan. But this country is soo slow and calm for me...and also..If you are a loser, you are a loser for the rest of your life. To be frank, if we couldn't go to a good college, we become a loser. People might say good college is not important anymore.. If we start working, it doesn't matter which college we went to. For my opinion, that's principles, not real intentions. This is people's point of view. If people say that, why do we still appeal to people from which college we graduate? Practically we just need to know what we did and what we studied, right? In the bottom of people's heart, they still thought good college = good ability & capability-- and/or good college = trust even if people think this is the norm. Also it is a mindset that a person coming from a good college will do a good job. Oftentimes, later on, they realize why the person couldn't do a good job even if they graduated from a good college. So a good college is like a brand and a plus on your resume for the rest of your life. Even if we study very hard after we entered college and got high GPA, it didn't mean anything in Japan because I got high GPA from a non-good college. I really got turned off by our Japanese society. You know? In other words..people can go to good college if you can study subjects from compulsory education very well, not practical education. Of course it's better if you can do both well. But all humans are different. Some people like only compulsory education... Some people like only practical education. I am the latter. I am disappointed that Japanese society judge people by college name. In our company, some people still say or think this way because it's still Japanese company. But better than if we were in Japan. Due to this mentality, they won't give us a second chance in Japan. But, in US, as I said, there is always another chance because it is a competing society. As long as we have the ability and capability, we can get up from the bottom rung. So it's good for me because I would be considered a loser in Japan. I am very comfortable here. Can you survive from real competition? :-)