Working at Sumitomo; Internship in a Japanese Company

Since coming to Japan, I have had reservations about working in a Japanese company in the sense that corporate organizations are somewhat formal and rigid from my laboratory experience. It seems from my observation of their working environment has led me to think differently.

Since coming to the Sumitomo Bakelite (a subdivision of Sumitomo), I have found that the staff there is very friendly and very straightforward when it comes to getting work done. I'll lay out what my work experience has been for the past week.

Living in Utsunomiya

I live at the company dorm, which is something interesting to note compared to Western companies. A company dormitory is something that I've never heard of since living in Canada but it seems to be quite common in Japan. Nearly all large corporations in Japan offer living space at their dormitories for exceptionally cheap. Rooms regularly go for less that $80/month in rent. Food in the cafeteria (full meals) goes for approximately $1.5 and $3.5 for breakfast and dinner respectively at where I stay. For a country that is renowned for it's expensive living costs, these prices are on the extremely cheap side.

As I would love to post pictures of the dorm I am staying at, that will have to wait till I get my pictures downloaded tomorrow. I am staying in about a 5x5 meter room with a hallway extending out of it with a kitchen sink, gas stove, washroom+bathtub unit. For all intensive purposes, I can live comfortably in this room.

Electricity is billed at some flat rate and it is "all you can use" (the exact costs are unknown as I don't have the number available to me).

Departure to Work

I depart from the dorm at 8:00 am daily here. As traumatic I thought this would be from my usual lifestyle starting at 10:00 am, the switch was not bad at all. I car pool to work with a member from my group in the simulations and evaluation division to work, which is about a 30 minute commute for a total distance of approximately 10 km. Speeds are a little slow on the roads due to significant morning rush hour traffic. You might be wondering why I am not going to work on a train-- the train lines are most dense with population. Utsunomiya is not one of those places, which is even smaller than Sendai with a population of approximately 600,000 people.

Changing into Uniform

I arrive at work by 8:30 am giving me time to chance into the company uniform which consists of a blue cap, shirt and dress pants... all in different hues of blue. Feels like an institution to me. Wearing the cap is mandatory when you go outside buildings. I have 2 pairs of shoes, one for inside company buildings and one for walking outside.

Morning Stretches ("Radio-Taisou")

There is an 80's movie called Gung Ho made in 1986, if you've seen this then you'll know what these morning exercises might look like. Apparently since the 50's in Japan, a morning exercise program was instituted at schools, which required students to attend exercise events where they would stretch to standardized recorded music. If I were to play this song anywhere in Japan, they'd know what it is in a heartbeat.

Morning stretching consists of light jumping jacks, arm stretches, hip stretches etc etc. Nearly all employees attend but from by observation, attendance is optional. This is something that you'd never see in North America, but I find it quite amusing.

Morning Meetings

For those of you that have been following the debauchery of meetings I have for my lab, working at this company has changed my opinion of Japanese meetings -- they're not all bad! We have regular morning meetings immediately after stretching that runs for approximately 10 minutes where the 5~6 members of the team and boss report in on what they will be doing for the day.

Safety at the Work Place

Occasionally we have a short safety presentation from a book where a dangerous situation is described and a short resolution is presented. In Japanese everyone repeats the problem and solution and ends of with the English of "check" at the end. It's kind of cute actually. I should give a short comment on industrial safety at this company and about other companies from what I have heard.

The motto is "Safety is number one." Since arriving at this company and getting my orientation, the first thing they told me about working here is that safety very important. From what they informed me, they told me that most accidents are a result of reoccurring "close calls." If repeated sufficiently many times, someone gets unlucky and an accident occurs. In general, most obvious accident causes are easily dealt with and that their objective is to reduce the number of close calls by informal reporting to whoever in charge.

They also prescribe to a "danger anticipation mindset" where potential (and even benign) dangers should be anticipated and dealt with. Things like adding ramps on large cables running through a room or carrying a stack of boxes which go past your neck are considered. These people consider a good amount of safety detail.

Some of the doors in the stairwells even have labels noting that people should open them slowly incase people are behind.

Special Meetings for Me

During most morning, right after the morning meetings a second meeting is held where the head of our group and my supervisor come out to discuss what I will be doing for the day. They've had a 3-week plan all set out for me since the first day I arrived. I've never seen such work planning before, but I will be taking that in to note as a technique to organize my own work (I've done it before, but never took it seriously in university for group projects to the degree as these people do, for me at least).

The division leader for my group is an exceptionally nice guy. He had personally given me a map of Utsunomiya, lend me his bike, umbrella and gave me a cup since arriving here. What occurs is a short explanation of what I will be doing, why is it is important and the communication of some peripheral information to me. I, intern have the opportunity to ask questions and make comments which have led to me taking on 2 side projects and have some of my work rescheduled to immediately undertake my projects. This is exceptionally nice flexibility and I appreciate their ability to be so accommodating. This might also be the result of me being an intern and having no responsibilities, meaning that things can be very easily rearranged.

The Work Environment

I work in an office style floor which comes equipped with many cubicles and people working on computers for most of the day. Once in a while there is a bit of chatting that goes on, but for the most part the people there are quite focused. Communication is free and open; members of the team have direct access to each other. Actually I was looking for a memory card reader for my camera just today and asked around and one of the guys had one that will bring it to the office tomorrow. It's great, I like it.

Lunch

We leave at 12:15 to lunch to let the lunch crowd dissipate a little before we head in. I sit beside the group head so we go together with a few other members of the team. The cafeteria at the office is exceptionally cheap serving a full lunch set for $2.50/meal and even less if you just want ramen. The food has to be subsidized by the company for the prices to go this low. I have a small salad, a bowl of rise, miso soup and entree to go with my meal and I am quite full after every meal.

Hours

My official work hours at this company is from 9:00 am till 5:40 pm with a 1 hour break from 12:00 till 1:00 pm for lunch. Most people at the office stay later and I generally see them returning at 7:00 to 9:00 ish after work. They are also paid overtime though. I have tried to work overtime on my second day here on one of my projects but the division head insisted that I go home because I didn't have to do overtime.

I was very amazed to hear something like that coming from within a Japanese company where it is normal for people to do things like this... I was simply working because I thought what I was doing was interesting and I wanted to continue working on it. From what I have heard, some companies encourage people to not stay late working overtime which I think is a good trend and possibly a chance in work culture.

Conclusion/Consideration

From my experiences working at Sumitomo, I have found that Japanese work environments are not as intense as I anticipate they would be. As a result of this, I could possibly consider working here for a few years if something good pops up. Of course this is my experience from one company and should not be taken as a generalization for all Japanese companies, but the existence of one company like this suggests more environments like these exists in Japan.