Japan Photo of the Week: How many Japanese to change a light bulb?
Changing things up a little this week and getting into Japanese culture….
I apologize for the quality of this photograph, it was a little dark, my train (which comes about twice an hour) was just about to leave and the only camera I had was my cell phone; however, this week’s photo is more about what is really going on, and to answer to the ancient question, “How many people (in this case Japanese) does it take to change a light bulb?”
Apparently eight… and one folding warning sign. To be honest, while it looked like they were changing a light bulb, I don’t really know if anything else is going on (training session maybe) as I was running to catch my train, but it brings up a (not so well maybe?) documented part of Japanese culture.
A lot of people from outside Japan–myself included before living here–have the impression that Japanese people and students work very hard. Of course this is true for some people, but from my experience here, in general, my students are often lazy, my university “classes” were a breeze and many of–not all–my coworkers work for about half the day.
At my workplace, when my coworkers are not teaching, a lot spend the time chatting away, surfing the net, reading the newspaper, and really do anything other than getting work done (of course not always, but in general this happens a lot). Then I hear them complain about how busy they are or how late they have to stay–sometimes until 8 or 9pm. Of course my American influenced mind just wants to give them a huge, “DUH! If you actually did something at work instead of messing around all day you could leave at 5pm!” But I didn’t think this would be good for work relationships, so I decided I would try and understand why this sort of thing happens.
What I finally came to understand is that in general, time spent at work is more valued than productivity. So even though they aren’t always getting things done, they are showing commitment to the group by staying extra late. As far as university goes, apparently it is really hard to pass the entrance exam, but once you get in it does not matter so much what your grades are, just what college you went to. Apparently.
So now you can understand why it takes eight people to change a light bulb. All of them are “working.”
For a slightly outdated, yet pretty dead on, article about “useless workers” in Japan, The Quirky Japan Homepage is worth checking out.
***Personal Disclaimer***
Of course like in any country, Japan has hard workers and lazy ones. I am not implying that all Japanese people are lazy or useless rather I am just sharing some thoughts from my experiences.
This photograph was taken by Evan Pike.
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I couldn’t agree more with this post!
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I always thought it was 8 workers looking around while the robot does all the work.
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haha, well, I never saw the “person” on the ladder up close, for all i know you could be right, maybe it was a robot!
I found my own university classes at the BA level varied from a total breeze to expecting to do some serious work, the more work the closer to your actual major (i.e. the compulsory classes in physics etc were a joke: the only thing you had to do was show up). But things definitely get harder in post-grad.
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It seems like everyone so far has had similar experiences as me… is there actually anyone who has had a different one?
“What I finally came to understand is that in general, time spent at work is more valued than productivity. So even though they aren’t always getting things done, they are showing commitment to the group by staying extra late”
Hey, just like in Spain! Maybe we are somehow related to the Japanese! (just joking
)
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Not so different from Mexico. The supervisors are always the ones watching.
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Evan, you are just jumping to the conclusion about “documented part of Japanese culture” from an isolated event. You really do not know if they were changing light bulbs. Even if they were, you could have commented about the inefficiency of the railroad company. In my office in Tokyo, fluorescent lumps are changed by one person, and I have never seen such a job done by more than 2 persons during 40 and more years of my experience in Japan.
I hope your exoticism about Japan will not overcome your common sense.
Maybe, some 2-ch guy may call the railroad company about your photo and I think it is most likely, after listening to the other side of the story, you will be enshrined in the stupid gaijin hall of infamy.
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Oh Stereo, you also need to chill.
Life’s changed a lot in Japan, too. There’s a lot more of everything, unlike the old days when people were still scrambling to make ends meet after WW2, and then the massive re-construction effort thereafter may, especially to people from the US, have seemed like the people in Japan were working extremely hard.
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Thanks for the comment Stereo, but I think you are taking this a little too seriously. Of course I know that every light bulb does not need that many Japanese people to change it and like I admited in my post and like you said I am not exactly sure what is going on; however, that being said, the photo is just in reference to the joke “how many does it take to change a light bulb?” but also made me think about my expereince with Japanese students and my Japanese coworkers. I cannot speak for all of Japan or all Japanese people, and I never intended to, but simply I wanted to share my experience (to see if others had similar or different to me)and my personal experience has been that some Japanese are not as “hard working” as I have been led on to believe. Which is true in any culture I guess….
On a side note maybe I should have used a different word rather than “documented.”
In any case, thank you for expressing your opinion.
This could be an isolated event, hard to judge by just the photograph.
I could say that in an office environment, “face time” seemingly is more important that efficiency.
I also thought I saw an article on here a way back about those workers at construction sites (or even in places where there is no construction) and the fact that they are doing nothing.
That is just the way it is here or in any country sometimes. I do know though that canadian govt workers are lazy.
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Actually, they were just shooting a Beastie Boys video…
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