Being A Woman, in The Japanese Business World
Picture this… Week one starting a new job, new location, new country, new language, new culture. My first time ever in Asia, was on a pre-relocation trip, looking for the apartment I would be living in for the next three years. Week one of being on the job, the team scheduled my first meeting with a marketing agency that had been working with the company for some time. Its typical in Japanese office culture to offer drinks (coffee, tea, water) for your guest. There were only three of us from my team, and three of them from the agency.
After all pleasantries, proper introductions, we all began to sit down to begin the meeting. That is when my coworker turned to me and, in a tone of ‘why are you doing this yet’, said, “can you order drinks for everyone”. I just gave him a blank stare and asked him where the drinks were. That’s when it clicked in his head that I had no idea how to preform this task. So, he turned to everyone and asked what they would like to drink, got on the phone that was in the room, ordered drinks, and within 2 minutes a uniformed woman walked into the room and provided drinks.
My first reaction was, why in hell would I be the one to take this task, it makes no sense, I’ve never done it before. Also, I DON’T SPEAK JAPANESE and no one, especially the women on the phone, don’t speak any English.
It really wasn’t until months later that I started putting two and two together. He was asking me because culturally its something the youngest woman preforms. I didn’t see it because I had never had pure sexism so transparent and in your face. I couldn’t recognize it for what it was.
Instinctually, I wanted to conform and be apart of this culture, I didn’t want to be the annoying American who doesn’t understand us. I wanted to be the person who understands and cooperates. The day i realized the blatant sexism was the day I decided I would use my voice to speak up for those women who feel imprisoned by this business culture. So, working with my 日本語せんせい (Japanese teacher), I learned about the business culture, practice the parts I could support, formalities, but, when it came to any subject relating to a “women’s place”, I was more than happy to fight it using their own culture to respectfully do so.
