Many people may have such an image in their minds when talking about a business dress code in Japan, that male employees usually wear a formal suit in black or navy blue, with a button-down shirt inside; whereas female employees tend to dress themselves in a business casual style, which consists with a shirt and a skirt without patterns, often in white, grey, black or blue colour.

私は４月から新卒採用によりe-Janネットワークスで働き始めました。
かれこれ２か月が経とうとしていますが、ダイバーシティの考えを実現しているe-Janネットワークスは、日々目新しいことでいっぱいです。

例えば釣り、農業、登山、旅行、皇居ラン、食べ歩き、コーヒー挽き、猫の写真、車、電車、音楽などなど、バラエティに富んだ趣味の話が、周囲で繰り広げられています。
また社員の約2割が外国籍であるため、日本語以外の言語を用いて会話している姿をよく見かけます。

４月からe-Janネットワークスで働き始めて、一か月が経ちました。
日々感じるのは、空気がとてもおいしい場所だということです。


『空気』と一口に言っても、意味は色々ありますが、大きく分けて
生き物が生きていくために必要不可欠な『空気』という意味
そして、その場の雰囲気や流れといった『空気』という意味
の二つがあります。

Japan has a reputation for being a culture of workaholics, but there are of course many allowances for taking time off. Paid time off is given to employees, and companies encourage their employees to use their vacation days.

About a month ago, I was invited to visit India, and go on numerous client visits together with our colleagues in India. This would be an opportunity for me to see firsthand the Indian market culture and how it runs. I was quite excited but wasn’t exactly sure on what to expect.

Different cultures mark the beginning of the year in different ways. There is the calendar year, for example set by the Gregorian calendar or lunar calendar. There is the academic school year, the start date for which differs vastly by country and region. Japan uses the Gregorian calendar to mark the start of the year as 1 January, but it is one of the countries where the fiscal year starts in April. (Other countries that follow this schedule include Australia and New Zealand.) The academic school year also starts in April; this is thought to coincide with the fiscal year.

We have an activity called study session which is created by me. It was made only around three months after I joined e-Jan. It was quite impressive because people were open to ideas even though it was from a new employee like me. I would like to explain more about the study session.


Before I explain what the study session is, I would like to write about its background. I got a motivation to create study session from my team leader. Once every two weeks, my team leader and I will have a “one on one” meeting for an hour. In the meeting, the leader couches me to become better professional. He asked me what my dreams are when we had our first meeting. One of my dreams was to become senior-level developer. Next, he asked me what to do to achieve my dream. I said I need to read books, write code frequently, and have many discussions as well as communications. Everything else is fine, but a lack of communications is the problem. My leader gave me a homework that I need to start discussions somehow. To fulfill this mission, I created the study session.

先日、「東京カイシャハッケン伝」という冊子に弊社のことが紹介されました。この冊子は、「中小企業しごと魅力発信プロジェクト」の一環として東京都産業労働局が発行しているものです。
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A leaflet name “Kaishahakkenden (Discovery of companies)” was published last month. This leaflet introduces small and medium-sized enterprises in Tokyo and is used for recruitment purposes.

日本では、育児をしながら働く女性が増えています。
家計に必要なお金を稼ぐことはもちろんのこと、好きな仕事を続けたい、キャリアを積みたい等、理由は様々です。
昔は妊娠後は退職し育児に専念する女性が多くいましたが、現在は夫婦で働き、育児や家事は分担する家庭が増えていると感じます。

政府も企業も、人口が減少する中、労働人口を確保する改革を進めており、出産後も働ける環境づくりや女性の就労支援が広がりつつあります。

In Japan, there is an established tradition of women giving men chocolates on Valentine’s Day. There are two ways that chocolate is given: Honmei-choco is chocolate given to a romantic partner, while Giri-choco (‘obligation chocolate’) is given to friends and coworkers and has no romantic meaning.
On the flipside, unique to Japan is March 14, White Day, in which men who have received chocolates on Valentine’s Day give gifts in return.

This week’s guest post is written by ‘Y.I.’on her past experiences of Valentine’s Day while working at a different, more traditional Japanese company.

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シンガポールなど、東南アジアの日系企業に赴任する日本人駐在員が第一に驚くのが「ローカルスタッフが定時で退社する」ことでしょう。

※ローカルスタッフ：本国から派遣された駐在員ではなくその国で現地採用されたスタッフ
文字通りLocally Hiredされているというだけで、差別的な意味はありません

午後5時30分が定時であれば、5時35分にはほぼ全員のローカルスタッフはオフィスからいなくなります。
日本人だけが遅くまで残っているというのはよくある話であり、日本人にとっては違和感がありますがそこには文化的背景があります。
いくつか理由を挙げてみましょう。