在日本工作和在中國工作有什么不同?
What's the difference between working in Japan vs. in China?
譯文簡介
Ben Smith:作為一個居住在日本的美國人，我認為你對日本人職業(yè)道德的總結是非常準確的，我敢說你所描述的中國的職業(yè)道德與美國非常相似——高度結果導向，以業(yè)績?yōu)榛A。這與日本形成了鮮明對比!
正文翻譯
What's the difference between working in Japan vs. in China?
在日本工作和在中國工作有什么不同?
評論翻譯
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Being a Chinese who has working experience in both China and Japan, here is some of my personal observations, please take it with a grain of salt :
Office politics aside, (it happens in both countries, of course, as well as in any other countries) imagine employee A and B.
A is smart and can-do but pretty “l(fā)azy”. He often rushes into the office in the last minute in the morning. He never does overtime, and never needs to- he always has tasks done perfectly, much earlier before it is due, which is why you can often see him net surfing or Skype chatting.
作為一個在中國和日本都有工作經驗的中國人，以下是我的一些個人看法，請對我的話持保留態(tài)度。
拋開辦公室政治不談，想象一下有兩個員工，員工A和員工B。
A很聰明，也很能干，但很“懶”。他經常在早上最后一分鐘沖進辦公室。他從不加班，也不需要加班——他總是把任務完美地完成，比截止日期早得多，這就是為什么你經常看到他上網或在Skype上聊天。
Now what would their performance uation be like?
In a typical Japanese company, in most cases, B would be considered a qualified employee. He would have an average or even above career path, and would gain some respect from other coworkers. And A? He would not be liked too much, quite the opposite. Some managers and coworkers would doubt his work ethic and attitude, in many cases he would be isolated- certainly not a bright future.
B工作很努力，但不幸的是，他沒有特別的技能。B每天早上八點半到辦公室，晚上九點半下班，有時周末還加班。他的表現(xiàn)一般，不完美，但還行。有時他不能準時交報告，但他總是盡力按時交。
那么他們的績效評估是怎樣的呢?
在一個典型的日本公司里，在大多數(shù)情況下，B會被認為是一個合格的員工。他的職業(yè)生涯將達到平均水平，甚至更高，并且會從其他同事那里獲得一些尊重。而A呢?他不會太受歡迎，恰恰相反。一些經理和同事會懷疑他的職業(yè)道德和工作態(tài)度，在很多情況下，他會被孤立——這肯定不是一個光明的未來。
There is a famous Chinese saying which describes the majority of Chinese companies’ culture- “It doesn’t matter if it’s a white cat or a black cat, a cat that can catch rats is a good cat!” It ROUGHLY means- “I don’t care how you do it, how much time you spend on it, how much efforts you put in, which means you use, if the means are good or not… as long as you give me a good RESULT, you are good!”
Such a gap often causes culture shocks on both sides- Chinese who work in Japan and Japanese who work in China.
想聽聽相反的情況嗎?歡迎到中國來!
中國有一句著名的諺語，描述了大多數(shù)中國公司的文化——“白貓黑貓，抓得住老鼠的貓就是好貓!”它的大致意思是:“我不在乎你是怎么做的，不在乎你花了多少時間，投入了多少努力，不管你用了什么方法，也不管你用的方法是好是壞……只要你給我一個好的結果，你就是優(yōu)秀的!”
這種差距往往會引發(fā)雙方——在日本工作的中國人和在中國工作的日本人——的文化沖突。
我的一些日本同事在中國合資企業(yè)工作時常常保持著他們的日本風格的工作習慣,工作時間很長,制作滿目都是數(shù)字的巨細靡遺的紙面工作,向老板報告一切事情……然后他們受到了中國總經理的指責——“別拿那堆無用的文件來煩我,不要把我的時間浪費在沒完沒了的會議上。如何做是你的工作。讓我看到你的成果。”他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，無論他們付出了多少努力，只要結果是壞的，努力就會被視為沒有任何意義，任何理由都會被視為借口。
Process-focus Japanese and Result-focus Chinese, I feel they come from Mars and Venus.
我的一個中國同事(IT人員)在日本總部接受了培訓，他的培訓師舉報了他，因為他“在工作時間玩手機”。他不明白為什么這是錯誤的，因為他在培訓項目上已經做得很好了。有趣的是，中國的人力資源經理本應該給他一個警告，但她也說不出一個好的解釋。她說:“你不能這么做。你知道，這是日本。”
注重過程的日本人和注重結果的中國人，我覺得他們分別來自火星和金星。
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The HR system. Equalitarianism and seniority in Japan. Performance-only-matters company values in China. My coworkers often jokingly say “China is a capitalist country with a name of socialist; Japan is a socialist country with a name of capitalist”.
我還感覺到了其他的不同之處:
人力資源系統(tǒng)。
日本的平均主義和論資排輩。在中國，業(yè)績只關系到公司價值。我的同事經常開玩笑說:“中國是一個叫社會主義的資本主義國家;日本是一個叫資本主義的社會主義國家”。
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喜歡數(shù)據(jù)和細節(jié)的日本人VS討厭數(shù)據(jù)和細節(jié)的中國人。典型的日文商務報告格式是A3紙，全是數(shù)字和圖表，字體很小，讓人眼花繚亂。然而，你的日本老板總是能發(fā)現(xiàn)任何一個錯別字或前后排版不一致。你要做好準備至少要修改3次。一個典型的中國式商業(yè)報告的格式是……嗯，在大多數(shù)情況下(如果不是面向外部的報告)，你不需要這樣做。反正你的中國老板也沒興趣看。和你的老板談談，最好和他一起抽煙，5分鐘，就這樣。你會得到一個明確的答案是或不是。
Silent Japanese VS talkative Chinese. My Japanese coworkers generally don’t like speech too much. When they need to do a presentation, they often make a super detailed Power Point and read it word by word. Some Chinese leaders from the head office can give a whole 2 hours speech without a text, and amazingly, when you seriously think about the content, you will find… no real content there.
厭惡風險的日本人VS熱愛風險的中國人。我的日本老板的口頭禪是“你認為風險在哪里?”我的中國老板的反應呢?——“風險意味著糟糕的事情還沒有發(fā)生，對嗎?”等風險發(fā)生了，我們再談吧?！?br /> 沉默的日本人VS健談的中國人。我的日本同事通常不太喜歡說話。當他們需要做演示時，他們通常會做一個非常詳細的ppt，然后逐字逐句地閱讀。一些來自中國總部的領導可以在沒有文稿的情況下發(fā)表整整兩個小時的演講，令人驚訝的是，當你認真思考演講的內容時，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)……沒有真正的內容。
Those differences always amaze me. From them, I guess the reason why Japanese products can KEEP a high stable QUALITY for so many years. I guess the reason why Chinese enterprises can DEVELOP unbelievable FAST.
I learned much from the differences.
這樣的例子不勝枚舉。
這些差異總是讓我感到驚訝。從他們身上，我猜出了日本產品能保持這么多年高質量的原因。我也猜出了中國企業(yè)能發(fā)展得如此之快的原因。
我從這些差異中學到了很多。
在這個回答中，我使用了許多一般化的方法來簡化問題。當然，公司和個人之間存在著巨大的差異。感謝您的閱讀!
Very apt descxtion. One of my customers, a teapot manufacturer, told me a joke:
Give a japanese teapot maker a month, and he’ll produce the most exquisitely beautiful teapot in the world.
Give a Chinese teapot manufacturer a month, and he’ll produce 3 production lines of teapots with multiple designs and colors and a special hello kitty edition teapot for the kids.
非常貼切的描述。我的一個客戶，一個茶壺制造商，給我講了一個笑話:
給一個日本茶壺制造商一個月的時間，他就能生產出世界上最精美美麗的茶壺。
給一個中國茶壺制造商一個月的時間，他會生產出三條不同設計和顏色的茶壺生產線和一個特別的hello kitty版的孩子茶壺。
Haha so very true. Though hello kitty character is also from Japan. Well, that's another punchline.
哈哈，非常正確。雖然hello kitty的角色也來自日本。嗯，這又是一個笑點。
I can vouch for this answer! Spot on. I worked in China for 3 years, there's a Japanese guy in my office and he used to be exactly what you described for a typical Japanese worker, then his attitude changed to be more laid back and relaxed in China, following Chinese style.
Whereas my Chinese general manager only cares about the big picture, she doesn't give a flying arse about details, which sometimes mind boggling for us foreigners with her overly confident ‘it'll be alright’ attitude. Though, it sometimes creates some issues, generally things get done.
Funny thing is, now the Japanese guy has gone back to Tokyo and experiences massive reverse culture shock, he's been posting about how he's been feeling excessively on Facebook.
我可以擔保這個回答是真的!現(xiàn)身說法。我在中國工作了3年，我的辦公室里有一個日本人，他的行事作風一度就是你描述的那種典型的日本員工，然后他的態(tài)度在中國變得更加悠閑和放松，遵循了中國的做事風格。
而我的中國總經理只關心大局，她不關心細節(jié)，這讓我們外國人有時感到難以置信，因為她的態(tài)度過于自信，“一切都會好的”。雖然，這樣有時會產生一些問題，但通常情況下，事情是可以完成的。
有趣的是，現(xiàn)在這個日本人回到了東京，經歷了巨大的反向文化沖擊，他在Facebook上發(fā)布了他感受到的深刻變化。
Thanks for the vouch, Ryan! ^^
Oh yes yes yes! My Japanese coworkers who work in China for long enjoy so much working in such a “l(fā)oose” place, disappear from the office right at 5:30pm, answer the cellphone anytime anywhere, joke around and share snacks with coworkers… then they started to fear the transfer back to Japan.
謝謝你的擔保，瑞恩!＾＾
哦，對對對!我的日本同事長期在中國工作，他們喜歡在這樣一個“寬松”的地方工作，下午5:30就從辦公室消失，隨時隨地接手機，開玩笑，和同事分享零食，然后他們開始害怕被調回日本。
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You have perfectly described the concept of “chabuduo”. That's why Chinese people are often satisfied with mediocrity..
你很好地描述了“差不多”的概念。這就是為什么中國人總是甘于平庸。
Not satisfied with mediocrity, but the ability to distinguish between what requires meticulous precision, i.e. Chinese Space Station, super computers, Olympics Opening Ceremony, versus what requires only adequate attention, i.e. the disposable place mat at a fast food restaurant (does it really need to be printed perfectly?), a $5 T-Shirt that you will only wear for one summer, the $10 digital watch that only wear when doing manual labor work.
并非滿足于平庸，而是有能力區(qū)分需要細致精確的東西，比如中國空間站、超級計算機、奧運會開幕式，和只需要恰當關注的東西，比如快餐店的一次性餐墊(真的需要打印完美嗎?)5美元的t恤，只能穿一個夏天，10美元的電子表，只能在做體力勞動時戴。
I worked in Japan, the US and I 2nd you. Being aggressive or dedicated to your work or performance leads you to isolation in Japan. I'm not sure if it's the same to Japanese staff. However, after staying in Japan for years, I'm afraid that I can't adjust to the world outside of it.
我曾在日本、美國工作過。在日本，積極進取或專注于工作或愛表現(xiàn)會導致你被孤立。我不確定這對日本員工是否也一樣適用。然而，在日本呆了這么多年，我恐怕不能適應外面的世界了。
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是的，我也覺得日本有如此獨特的文化，需要付出很多努力才能融入。但一旦你真正融入其中，成為“其中一員”，就很難適應不同的文化——從日本到中國，我經歷的“文化沖擊”甚至比從中國到日本還要多。
This is really a great summary, although of course individuals can differ. I would also say Chinese office politics is much more cutthroat than Japanese office politics— becuase of clear rules of the game in Japan vs. no rules at all in China. Also, backstabbing and scheming can be intense in a Chinese office.
Reading this convinced me that Americans work a lot closer to the Chinese style than the Japanese style. There’s probably more structure and preparation in the US then in China, but mostly people are also judged by results—which is why you can often see 35 year olds managing 50 year olds in the US.
If a salesperson is kind of a jerk, as long as he or she is hitting their numbers, they are mostly left alone—if not, all of their personality flaws will suddenly matter a lot to their bosses and HR. Of course, like Chinese and Japanese alike, we like to have colleagues that are decent and friendly people if possible.
這確實是一個很好的總結，盡管每個人都有不同的感受。但我還是想說，中國的辦公室政治比日本的辦公室政治要殘酷得多——因為日本的游戲規(guī)則很明確，而中國則沒有規(guī)則。此外，在中國的辦公室里，背后中傷和陰謀可能會很激烈。
讀了這篇文章，我確信美國人的工作方式更接近中國而不是日本。美國可能比中國有更多的構思和準備，但大多數(shù)人也是根據(jù)結果來判斷的——這就是為什么在美國你經常能看到35歲的人管理50歲的人。
即便銷售人員是一個混蛋，只要他或她完成了他們的銷售量，就沒人會管他們——如果不是，他們所有的人格缺陷會突然對他們的老板和HR產生很大的影響。當然，就像中國人和日本人一樣，如果可能的話，我們希望有正派和友好的同事。
imo, Japanese work culture can be far too wasteful… at least in terms of hours and busywork.
other points are good tho. Being a craftsman in Japan for example.
I think the chinese approach can be really good at its core, but sometimes on the negative its not realistic if something literally can’t be accomplished.
在我看來，日本的工作文化太浪費了，至少在時間和繁忙的工作方面是如此。
不過其他選擇也不錯。比如在日本做一名工匠。
我認為中國的方法在本質上確實很好，但從消極的方面來說，如果事情真的無法完成，那就不現(xiàn)實了。
The analysis is spot on!
Couldn't have said it better myself.
On a side note, what you described about Chinese companies is true actually for the whole corporate world: “I don’t care how you do it, as long as the obxtive is achieved”.
分析的完全正確!
我自己也不能說得比這更好。
順便說一句，你對中國企業(yè)的描述實際上適用于整個企業(yè)界:“我不在乎你怎么做，只要目標實現(xiàn)了就行?！?/b>
Thank you, Victor.
I guess the result-focusing corporate culture may be one of the features of capitalism.
In a bigger span of human history, process-focusing may suit another stage of human development, when we have more than enough material and resource. The most precious and valuable thing may become human time, aka the life itself.
謝謝你,維克多。
我想注重結果的企業(yè)文化可能是資本主義的特征之一。
在人類歷史的更大跨度中，當我們擁有足夠的物質和資源時，聚焦過程可能適合人類發(fā)展的另一個階段。最寶貴、最有價值的東西可能就是人的時間，也就是生命本身。
I thought 996 culture was common in China. Your answer gives an opposite view
我認為996文化在中國很普遍。你的回答給出了相反的觀點。
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Yes this word 996 became really hot lately on internet. Still, 99% of the Chinese salary-men/women I know of (basically everybody in my current life) don't usually do long time over time. And the rest 1%? They definitely do 996. And all of them work in IT fields.
So here is my guess:
996 seems became a new norm in Chinese IT fields. Although it's not really common in other fields nor Chinese working culture as a whole (especially comparing to Japan), IT people may have bigger voice on the internet hence 996 became a hot topic.
kind of a "survivor bias".
Just my personal guess based
是的，“996”這個詞最近在網上很火。盡管如此，我所認識的99%的中國工薪族(基本上是我目前生活中的所有人)通常不會長時間工作。剩下的1%呢?他們確實是996工作制。他們都在IT領域工作。
以下是我的猜測:
“996”似乎已成為中國IT行業(yè)的新標準。盡管996在其他領域和中國的工作文化中并不普遍(特別是與日本相比)，it人士在互聯(lián)網上可能有更大的發(fā)言權，因此996成為了一個熱門話題。
一種“幸存者偏差”。
這只是我個人的猜測。
996 is common in IT, but not universal.
And I don’t think this is a culture that can last long. The Chinese IT industry is annoyingly young. The capitalists are basically exploiting the energy of young and unmarried or childless people. Once we have a whole generation of 40+ programmers things should change.
996在IT中很常見，但并不普遍。
我認為這種文化不會持續(xù)太久。惱人的是，中國IT行業(yè)還很年輕。資本家基本上是在剝削年輕人、未婚者或無子女者的精力。一旦我們有了40+年齡的程序員階層，這種狀況就應該要有所改變了。
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I worked in Japan for over 7 years and this is spot on. I personally enjoyed working in Japan much more when I was working for a foreign company (I worked at investment banks in IT). Outside of work, the regular folks you meet are really nice and I had little difficulty fitting in with the general society.
我在日本工作了7年多，你說的很正確。我個人更喜歡在日本工作時，我在一家外國公司工作(我在投資銀行的IT部門工作)。工作之余，你遇到的普通朋友都很好，我能輕而易舉地融入社會之中。
Thank you for the reading and the encouragement!
I like living in Japan too, despite of difficulties. The unique experience and super amazing friends I made in Japan is the treasure of my life.
感謝您的閱讀和鼓勵!
我也喜歡住在日本，盡管困難重重。在日本的獨特經歷和結交的超級棒的朋友是我生命中的財富。
thanks, very interesting!
I'm just a little curious because (except for the very end) from what you wrote i would expect the chinese way to be much more successful, but the japanese economy and it's companies seem clearly more successful….
謝謝,非常有趣!
我只是有點好奇，因為(除了最后一段)從你寫的內容來看，我認為中國的方式會更成功，但日本的經濟和公司似乎明顯更成功....
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Wow that's a good point!
Actually I have wondered it too, and as a layman (well, laywoman) of economics, this is something I GUESSED:
China started modern industry and capitalist market economic system much later than Japan. Chinese companies are somehow still relatively “newbies”.
哇，說得好!
事實上，我也想過這個問題，作為一個經濟學門外漢，以下是我的猜想:
中國開始現(xiàn)代工業(yè)和資本主義市場經濟體制的時間比日本晚得多。從某種程度上說，中國企業(yè)相對而言仍是“新手”。
制造業(yè)在過去的時代扮演了領導者的角色。日本文化非常注重這種“工匠精神”，高度重視努力工作。這種文化極大地幫助了日本公司制造世界頂級的高質量汽車/電器/機器等。中國企業(yè)通常更注重“賺錢”而不是“制造產品”，這需要高效率和短期現(xiàn)金流，并導致更多的并購和多元化。在中國你可以看到各種各樣的電子商務，但在日本卻很少見。
So one point is, I guess, when we talk about “successful”, the definition may vary. Japanese companies are like world famous craftsman or artists. And Chinese companies are like, well, they truly ARE businessmen. In company brand, Japan beats China. In GDP growth, China beats Japan. It's hard to say which one is more successful.
日本公司通常因為他們的產品而為人所知，并一直在生產產品，常常50年不變;中國公司可能沒有知名的產品，但賺了很多錢，并不斷把錢投資到新的多元化業(yè)務上。
所以我想，當我們談到“成功”的時候，定義可能會有所不同。日本公司就像世界著名的工匠或藝術家。中國公司就像，嗯，他們真的是商人。在企業(yè)品牌方面，日本勝過中國。在GDP增長方面，中國超過了日本。很難說哪一個更成功。
As an American resident in Japan I’d say your summary of Japanese work ethic is pretty accurate, and I daresay that the work ethic you described of China is quite similar to that of the U.S.- highly result-oriented, merit-based. Could not be any more of a contrast to Japan!
作為一個居住在日本的美國人，我認為你對日本人職業(yè)道德的總結是非常準確的，我敢說你所描述的中國的職業(yè)道德與美國非常相似——高度結果導向，以業(yè)績?yōu)榛A。這與日本形成了鮮明對比!
In that case, I love the Chinese working culture. The Pakistani working culture is similar to Japan which I believe stifles growth.
在這種情況下，我喜歡中國的工作文化。巴基斯坦的工作文化與日本相似，我認為這扼殺了經濟增長。