On the second week of our study tour, we had to complete a three-day internship at Pasona – Global Salon. This internship came as a good opportunity for me to learn more about Japanese work ethic and how it differentiates from an Australian work ethic. Our first day in global salon we were introduced to our mentor Kwan, who went through our schedule for the three days that we were interning at Pasona. We were also introduced to our fellow co-workers and learnt a lot about how global salon works and the different activities they promote to their clientele and staff members. During this I learnt that global salon incorporates activities such as teaching English, yoga lessons, dance lessons, art classes, massage booths, etc. These are all facilities provided by Pasona for the staff and clients. This also gives the employees an opportunity to join in on one of these classes (hosted by their co-workers) to learn more.

I started with the first task on our schedule which was being introduced to work+  by Kwan (which is one of his project) and how it aims to create a new stress-free work environment. The main idea of work+ is having a comfortable work environment that does not put too much pressure and stress on an individual (as most Japanese work environments do). By understanding the vision and goals of work+ it allowed me to contribute plenty of specific, target audience aimed ideas on how to grow work+ and have it make an effect within a workplace. However, the only issue was that there were too many ideas floating around for too many different things. My group and I realised from an early point on that this project needed to be more structured/defined at its core before we could start contributing any meaningful ideas which would help the project grow. This meant that our task for the next two days was to narrow down the vision of work+ and start of with the basics.

During my second day at the internship I was also helping out with the kids painting class (aged 7-10). I worked with my colleague on helping set up the class, distributing paint for kids and looking out for any of their needs. This was a fun experience for me as working with kids is always interesting and lively. During this painting class the kids and their mothers also got to practice their English with us in a much more comfortable and relaxed environment. The painting class involved instructions mainly in English (and some help in Japanese), however it seemed like the instructions in Japanese didn’t really matter to the kids as they appeared more comfortable with English. They were more than willing to interact with us in English and felt comfortable in doing so. Helping the kids and their mothers learn English was a great experience for me as throughout my stay in Japan, while interacting with people I have to come to realise that not many locals can speak English. Therefore seeing so many kids being comfortable with conversing in English was a heart-warming scene.

During this three-day internship we covered long hours as we would often start from 8-9am and finish at 6pm, which made me realise how different the work ethic in Japan actually is from Australia. In Japan people would usually work long hours and even take overtime tasks (without getting payed extra), which shocked me because I couldn’t see a reason as to why anyone would want to voluntarily agree to that. However I also learned that most people working in Japan happen to be workaholics (which would explain the long hours), or they just don’t feel confident in speaking up and wanting to change the system (as they are too used to the work environment).

This made me feel incredibly lucky for the healthy work environment we have in Australia, as I saw that in Japan there isn’t much flexibility granted to the employee as there is in Australia. Being at this internship I learned about the contrast between the work environment in Australia and the one in Japan, and the pro’s and con’s of both. While I may not agree with the stereotypical Japanese work environment (long stressful hours, no overpay, no social life, etc), I loved the work environment that Pasona provided us with. It was a fairly social environment which focused on team work and healthy work practices.