By anyone's standards, traveling in Japan is not a cheap affair. Shoe-stringing backpackers that frequent Southeast Asia should definitely not be here, considering that cheapest lodging tend to be around 30 USD per night and the cheapest lunch 6 USD. Combine that with extremely expensive local transportation, which can average 20 USD for even short-distance train travel, and the expenses pile up in ways that does not justify the incomes of even the average person that lives and works in this country. Most of the time, the money flies out of the wallet without even the user really noticing.
And the not noticing part as has something to do with how the Japanese request money for services. Simply put, the Japanese goes out of their way to make the person spending money feel comfortable about parting with their cash, erasing any possibility of second thought or regret upon deciding to purchase something that they may or may not absolutely need. Buying sexual services is an extreme example, but one that demonstrates how pleasant the after-effect can be. Even in more mundane situations like restaurants and hotels, the client feels that the money spent is not forced but was done to maximize value.
Indeed, some of these can be attributed to the meticulousness with which services and goods are prepared. The author is always impressed by the quality of the food served in restaurants, which, of course, are not cheap in absolute value. But when he thinks about what food he can get for similar price in the US, the food actually feels quite cheap. The higher expectations of the Japanese customers for quality, as compared to their American counterparts, may be responsible for bringing out substantial improvements while prices are held down by competition and lack of changes in income over the past couple of decades.
Unfortunately, such smoothness in terms of parting customers with their money does not particularly bode well for the Japanese consumer base at the moment. Recent political development has brought out a strong push for the right for loosening of labor laws, allowing easier hiring and firing of employees across all professions. The resulting decrease in job and income security will surely make bread-earners much wearier about stepping into any position to part with their money in the first place, irrespective of how good or bad the result of those spending may be.
The potential decreases in spending would affect the Omotenashi associated with getting people to spend. In a country where labor costs are insanely high, employees are hard to come by especially in rural areas, and robotics are gradually taking over even service industry jobs, the maintenance of high level of training required to dig into details ought to be extremely difficult. But social expectations of service is "sticky," meaning that the Japanese, so used to the kind of high level services they get for their money, would not expect any less when they pay, even if the amount of payments they make is steadily decreasing.
Hence comes the dilemma for the employees. The author was looking at the salaries for service jobs here in more rural off-shore islands of Kagoshima. Even the highest paying front-line service personnel (waiters, front desk, receptionists) is paid just 7-8 USD an hour. This is much lower than what similar jobs would pay in the US, not to mention places like Australia and Western Europe, where same jobs come with two-digit hourly wage as well as benefits like insurance and bonuses, not of which are available to their Japanese counterparts. Had Japanese employees knew about this, they certainly would not be happy.
Moreover, the flip side of Omotenashi is that the efforts used for the same service industry job in Japan is much greater than places like US, Australia, or Europe. Take a waiter for example. The author observed that in certain restaurants in Japan, the waiter is expected to squat down every time for taking orders and showing the bill, as well as walk customers to the door and bowing upon the customer leaving the shop. These are part of a physically exhaustive routine that waiters in the West would not be subject to. Yet, such extra efforts by Japanese waiters to maintain Omotenashi would not be reflected by better compensation.
Perhaps it is really the Japanese nature of never questioning the presence of certain rules that is still keeping the under-paid but overworked service personnel in place. In Europe, people would have long revolted against the seeming unfairness of the arrangement, which in turn would be reflected in social movements represented by the political left. The lack of such culture in Japan has meant that such perceived exploitation of the under-paid for over-service become social norms, not questioned by the user or the giver. Perhaps that is part of the whole Omotenashi concept as well...
And the not noticing part as has something to do with how the Japanese request money for services. Simply put, the Japanese goes out of their way to make the person spending money feel comfortable about parting with their cash, erasing any possibility of second thought or regret upon deciding to purchase something that they may or may not absolutely need. Buying sexual services is an extreme example, but one that demonstrates how pleasant the after-effect can be. Even in more mundane situations like restaurants and hotels, the client feels that the money spent is not forced but was done to maximize value.
Indeed, some of these can be attributed to the meticulousness with which services and goods are prepared. The author is always impressed by the quality of the food served in restaurants, which, of course, are not cheap in absolute value. But when he thinks about what food he can get for similar price in the US, the food actually feels quite cheap. The higher expectations of the Japanese customers for quality, as compared to their American counterparts, may be responsible for bringing out substantial improvements while prices are held down by competition and lack of changes in income over the past couple of decades.
Unfortunately, such smoothness in terms of parting customers with their money does not particularly bode well for the Japanese consumer base at the moment. Recent political development has brought out a strong push for the right for loosening of labor laws, allowing easier hiring and firing of employees across all professions. The resulting decrease in job and income security will surely make bread-earners much wearier about stepping into any position to part with their money in the first place, irrespective of how good or bad the result of those spending may be.
The potential decreases in spending would affect the Omotenashi associated with getting people to spend. In a country where labor costs are insanely high, employees are hard to come by especially in rural areas, and robotics are gradually taking over even service industry jobs, the maintenance of high level of training required to dig into details ought to be extremely difficult. But social expectations of service is "sticky," meaning that the Japanese, so used to the kind of high level services they get for their money, would not expect any less when they pay, even if the amount of payments they make is steadily decreasing.
Hence comes the dilemma for the employees. The author was looking at the salaries for service jobs here in more rural off-shore islands of Kagoshima. Even the highest paying front-line service personnel (waiters, front desk, receptionists) is paid just 7-8 USD an hour. This is much lower than what similar jobs would pay in the US, not to mention places like Australia and Western Europe, where same jobs come with two-digit hourly wage as well as benefits like insurance and bonuses, not of which are available to their Japanese counterparts. Had Japanese employees knew about this, they certainly would not be happy.
Moreover, the flip side of Omotenashi is that the efforts used for the same service industry job in Japan is much greater than places like US, Australia, or Europe. Take a waiter for example. The author observed that in certain restaurants in Japan, the waiter is expected to squat down every time for taking orders and showing the bill, as well as walk customers to the door and bowing upon the customer leaving the shop. These are part of a physically exhaustive routine that waiters in the West would not be subject to. Yet, such extra efforts by Japanese waiters to maintain Omotenashi would not be reflected by better compensation.
Perhaps it is really the Japanese nature of never questioning the presence of certain rules that is still keeping the under-paid but overworked service personnel in place. In Europe, people would have long revolted against the seeming unfairness of the arrangement, which in turn would be reflected in social movements represented by the political left. The lack of such culture in Japan has meant that such perceived exploitation of the under-paid for over-service become social norms, not questioned by the user or the giver. Perhaps that is part of the whole Omotenashi concept as well...
Comments
Post a Comment