Terrie's Take 866 - Diversity as a Strategy in Finding Employees as a Start-up, ebiz news from Japan

[Terrie's Take]

* * * * * * * * TERRIE'S TAKE - BY TERRIE LLOYD * * * * * *
A weekly roundup of news & information from Terrie Lloyd, a long-term 
technology and media entrepreneur living in Japan. 
(http://www.terrielloyd.com)

General Edition Sunday, September 25, 2016, Issue No. 866

- What's New -- Diversity as a Strategy in Finding Employees as a Start-up
- News -- Possible anti-trust action against Apple in Tokyo
- Upcoming Events
- Corrections/Feedback
- Travel Picks -- Sendai pink zone, Okazaki fireworks
- News Credits

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+++ WHAT'S NEW

If there is one constant in Japan as a new business, it is the 
difficulty of finding new staff - especially if you need bilinguals, and 
especially now that the unemployment rate is a record low 3%. 
Unfortunately the very idea of a start-up is the antithesis of what most 
Japanese would consider a desirable opportunity, even if currently they 
are underpaid or under-employed. A brand name your mother would know, a 
prestigious address, and safety in numbers are all the primary selling 
points to recruit fresh candidates - none of which are normal attributes 
of a new business still proving out its business model.

One way to cope with start-up recruiting is to become more diverse in 
your selection pool. Looking at the Japanese labor market we can carve 
it up into roughly seven segments of people willing to join a 
cross-border start-up.

1. New graduates of overseas schools who have not yet returned to Japan 
(or who have just come back) and who are not yet under the influence of 
over-opinionated parents or conservative peers. In our opinion, these 
people are most desirable as employees in cross-border start-ups, 
because they are practically (not just theoretically) bilingual, have 
been exposed to western/international thinking, are fresh from the 
experience of having to survive and problem-solve on their own in the 
big bad world, and they are not scared of adversity so long as they feel 
inspired.

We have found that the best places to find these people are where they 
are still being influenced by foreign values, which means while they are 
still at university or while on an F-1 visa (USA) and finishing up their 
one year practical work experience. Great places to look for Japanese 
graduates include universities in Australia (specifically Victorian 
universities), smaller states in the USA, Canada, and the UK. Why 
Australia? It attracts the most pragmatic adult Japanese students 
because its universities offer great value-for-money education, versus 
US schools.

As a start-up, if you don't have the wherewithal to actually travel to 
these campuses to recruit, then the next best thing is to offer 
internships over email through the institution's career counselors, to 
3rd and 4th year students who are back in Japan for the summer holidays.

2. Working mothers. For all the PR put out by the Abe government, the 
fact is that this segment of Japanese workers is still one of the most 
badly served by regular companies, and therefore the quality of talent 
is generally better and experience levels are higher (although that can 
be a problem if they learned their previous jobs at very rigid 
companies). Working mothers have one particular need, which if you can 
satisfy it counts above all other considerations - and that is the need 
to have flexible working hours so that they can tend to their children. 
This means late starts, early finishes, occasional sick days (for sick 
kids), and the ability to work from home regularly.

If this sounds inconvenient and difficult to plan around, it is, so you 
need to match your working mother candidates to positions that are 
tolerant of time flexibility. This can mean background management and 
support positions, sales prospecting that can be handed over to someone 
more available for client servicing, engineering or designing where 
brain power not hours matter, and leadership where the person has a 
trusted right-hand man (or woman) to help them cover their non-present 
periods.

We generally find working mothers through networking, both online and 
also through introductions from existing employees. Recently there are 
many web agencies dispatching married and even single moms, and these 
can be good initial contact points to meet some potential candidates. 
One example is http://www.c-mam.co.jp/.

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[...Article continues]

3. Prime time employees. Almost every foreign company entering Japan 
wants "prime time" employees. This means people who are bilingual, 
skilled, have strong previously employment records, and who are aged 
25-40. Because foreign multinationals in particular want these people, 
and because the supply of individuals is so constrained (just 69,869 
Japanese studying abroad in FY2013, but a market demand for at least 1-2 
million bilinguals - you do the math), the prices those companies are 
willing pay means that most of these candidates are out of reach of 
start-ups.

A possible exception is where a prime time candidate is having a 
personal issue OR is going through a life re-assessment and wants to 
learn some specific skill that they are willing to give you their labor 
in order to receive it. In our case, this skill is usually education on 
how to start up their own company in the future - and so our 
responsibility as the direct manager or founder is to be ready to mentor 
the person in that area. Our practice in dealing with such people is to 
extract a personal promise to stay in the job for two years, in return 
for a no-fault termination (at the candidate's request) when they are 
ready to move on. For most people, two years is not a big ask. Chances 
are, some of these people will decide they like it better working with 
you and will stay on longer term.

With this strategy you have to be ready for the possibility that you are 
going to breed a competitor, but our take is that future entrepreneurs 
look for gaps, not to go head on into competition with a competent 
mentor. So, how tight is your operation and how confident are you of the 
loyalty of your other staff? OK, there is at least one exception to this 
strategy and that is the recruiting industry, where for some reason 
cannibalism seems to be the standard procedure.

Where do we find these people if we can afford them? Linked In, personal 
networking, and personal introductions are the best methods. In fact, 
personal introductions from other staff members is a great way to find 
people. We have a standing introduction fee of JPY100,000 for any 
employee who introduces a strong candidate to us and where that 
candidate makes it past probation. If your company doesn't have this 
type of bonus system, you need to start one. Bringing in friends of 
current employees creates strong bonds and personal responsibility on 
both sides to make the new hire work.

4. Older workers. This group is probably the most discriminated against 
segment of employees in Japan, even more so than working mothers. There 
are lots of reasons for this but the biggest one is pragmatic, the sheer 
cost of retraining someone who is likely to be set in their ways. To be 
sure we regularly come across older candidates with young minds, but 
generally speaking older workers are more likely to want to follow 
established practices and therefore they are probably best suited for 
admin jobs where they are dealing with the same bureaucracies they did 
in previous jobs. That said, you might find an older candidate who has a 
great personal network and you want to plug into it. Just be certain 
that their network actually works in practice. Who you know versus who 
you can influence are two different things. We always ask such 
candidates to give express examples of who they have in their network 
and how they have leveraged such relationship recently.

Yes, there are some gems out there. Be prepared to sift hard - 
especially if you're sourcing candidates from Hello Work, the 
government's employment service and one of the best places to find older 
admin staff. BTW, in Japan "older" and "too old" means candidates aged 
50-65. That includes us...! :-)

A secondary problem with older workers can be their younger colleagues. 
It is socially very challenging for a young Japanese to be telling an 
older peer what to do in their job. Respect (or dislike) of one's elders 
means that the younger person is feeling mentally pressured and is 
probably not acting the way they would with people nearer their own age. 
This means less control by the manager and less communication. The worst 
outcome of this situation is that the younger person decides they can't 
deal with the situation and decides to resign. For this reason, if 
you're hiring older staff, monitor your younger manager's interactions 
with the new candidate closely.

5. Friends. An interesting fact is that most successful start-ups in 
Japan are founded by a small group of friends who planned and dreamed of 
a new business while working for a large company, or while they were at 
school. The key ingredients are a charismatic leader with the vision, a 
group of competent and skilled friends who are working in careers where 
they have been able to save some cash and therefore who are willing and 
able to take a risk, and of course a business opportunity. If you are 
that charismatic leader, then this strategy is only really relevant 
before you have started up your business, and you have one key job to do 
- to network and inspire.

One such company that we have run across recently that epitomizes this 
approach is Soracom, a newish MVNO that does IoT telecommunications 
infrastructure that other small (and large) companies can plug into 
cheaply and quickly. The CEO/Founder, Tamagawa-san, was at Amazon and 
IBM prior to setting up the firm and he brought team members from both 
firms, along with some NTT guys through another founding employee. The 
company is technically excellent and has a highly cohesive and 
disciplined team - which is super important because their sector has a 
relatively low barrier to entry and is highly competitive. One huge 
advantage of a strong founding team is that investors love them. As a 
result Soracom earlier this year scored a decently sized Series B 
funding, bringing their 3-year total raised to JPY3.4bn.

6. Fringe workers. By "fringe" we mean people who basically unskilled in 
your area of business. In fact, there is a surplus of these people in 
the marketplace due to the ongoing contraction of factory jobs in Japan. 
According to recent statistics from the government, young men aged 25-44 
are the fastest growing long-term unemployed segment. These people, who 
would normally be prime time candidates, are instead finding it 
difficult to change gears mentally, a function of the education system 
in our opinion, and thus they'd rather not try to learn something new 
and simply give up working at all. Over time they sink into a black hole 
of depression and the question is whether they can pull themselves back 
up mentally again or not.

We have tried over the years to help bring fringe workers back into the 
mainstream by offering them jobs which have low technical barriers to 
success - such as sales, customer support, etc. The biggest challenge is 
to find candidates who have gone through the entire process of losing a 
skilled job and after a period of depression are now ready to do what it 
takes to relaunch their careers. Mental health in a new employee is 
difficult to gauge and can be dangerous for a small firm, in that an 
unstable employee can become like a cancer and affect an entire team. 
Therefore, if you do find a candidate like this, you as the hiring 
manager or the founder really need to be on top of the relationship and 
be prepared to spend lots of time personally to mentor the candidate and 
get them past any emotional issues.

7. Disabled workers. We have employed various disabled workers over the 
years. As a start-up there are some practical considerations as to what 
kind of disability you can support. For example, as a start-up your old 
office may not be wheelchair friendly. A friend's start-up company does 
have an elevator in the building, but you nonetheless have to climb a 
flight of stairs or descend down a car parking ramp to get to it. In our 
firm, we are still stuck with narrow doorways to the bathrooms, and 
street access from one of the major subway stations is up a flight of 
stairs.

But one disability that does lend itself to success in a start-up is 
being deaf. We had a deaf employee working on our engineering team, and 
so long as he could communicate with instant chat he was highly 
productive. Engineering and customer service would also be well suited 
for blind employees.

Wrapping up, clearly our "seven sources of diverse employees" are a 
generalization about a labor market of more than 60m people. Of course 
there are many other sources and exceptions to the stereotypes. As a 
start-up, it's your job to find those exceptions, people that regular 
Japanese companies can't be bothered dealing with, and allow your 
candidates to be different. If you get it right, you'll get a grateful 
and dedicated team and productivity will go through the roof.


...The information janitors/

***------------------------****-------------------------***

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***********************************************************

+++ NEWS

- Global manga contest out of Kitakyushu
- Awesome ping pong robot from Omron
- Possible anti-trust action against Apple in Tokyo
- Q4, 2016 will be warmer than usual
- Sake exports rise and gain credibility


=> Global manga contest out of Kitakyushu

In a great example of local destination promotion, the city of 
Kitakyushu in Fukuoka-ken, Kyushu, is promoting an international manga 
competition to find promising new artists from abroad. The city has 
established a Manga Museum near JR Kokura Station (which is downtown 
Kokura), and will focus the contest on this establishment and its 
management team. Indeed, the honorary director of the museum, who is one 
of Japan's better known manga artists, will also be the lead judge. 
Other judges are also established manga-ka related in some way to 
Kitakyushu. The contest is open to anyone who can draw, and more 
information is available at the URL immediately below this article. The 
Grand Prize winner will win JPY500,000. Many of the top applicants will 
be invited to travel to Japan for the final judging event. (Source: TT 
commentary from asahi.com, Sep 24, 2016)

https://kitakyushu-mangataisho.com/en/
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201609240007.html

=> Awesome ping pong robot from Omron

If you haven't seen Omron's ping pong robot, Forpheus, in action yet, 
you need to go to the link below and watch the video. Omron has fitted 
its robot with ultra-fast cameras and computing capability, to not only 
intercept a ball from a human player, but also to correctly calculate 
paddle angle and speed to return the ball to an exact location on the 
human player's side of the table. In this way, the robot can return 
pretty much any legal serve as an easy to hit/learn shot for its human 
opponent. Now, the latest twist is that the Guinness World Records 
organization has named Forpheus as the world's first robot table tennis 
tutor. (Source: TT commentary from omron.com, Sep 8, 2016)

http://www.omron.com/innovation/forpheus/

=> Possible anti-trust action against Apple in Tokyo

The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) and the Ministry of Economy, 
Trade, and Industry (METI) are reportedly reviewing whether or not to 
pursue an antitrust action against Apple Japan for monopolistic 
practices revolving around Apple's pricing rules for reseller channels, 
as well as the requirement that in-app purchases only be effected 
through Apple's own payment system. The JFTC has been trying to 
investigate Apple's pricing rules and tactics but has been met by a wall 
of silence by development firms that sell through Apple's ecosystem. As 
a result, the Nikkei says that the JFTC may invoke a special power only 
used once before, to subpoena documents and witnesses, in order to build 
a case. ***Ed: This could get interesting.** (Source: TT commentary from 
asahi.com, Sep 17, 2016)

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201609170030.html

=> Q4, 2016 will be warmer than usual

The Japan Met Office has released its latest long-range weather forecast 
and predicts that we will enjoy enjoy average to warmer-than-average 
weather through to the end of this year. Eastern Japan, which includes 
Tokyo, will have a 40% chance of being warmer than average. On the other 
hand, Western Japan and Okinawa will have a 40% chance of December in 
particular being colder than usual. ***Ed: Usually winter weather comes 
from Siberia via Northern China. If Western and Eastern Japan are to be 
at variance in December, this will mean that Pacific warmth will be 
pushing further north than usual. Maybe a few more typhoons to come?** 
(Source: TT commentary from reuters.com, Sep 23, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-weather-idUSKCN11T0CG

=> Sake exports rise and gain credibility

This interesting article from the UK's Daily Mail offers up some good 
stats on Japan's sake export business. Apparently sake exports have 
doubled in the last 10 years, to around 18,180 kilolitres, with about 
25% going to the USA. Other major markets are Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, 
and South Korea. China has been the fastest growing market, with a 300% 
increase in 8 years, but even with this level of growth exports are 
still just 3% of domestic consumption - so the industry still has a lot 
of potential to improve availability and awareness abroad. ***Ed: The 
good news is that Robert Parker's Wine Advocate in its October issue 
(just released) published ratings for major sake brands, which will 
bring a lot of credibility to the beverage.** (Source: TT commentary 
from dailymail.co.uk, Sep 25, 2016)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3806160/Japan-sake-pours-overseas-local-market-dries-up.html


NOTE: Broken links
Some online news sources remove their articles after just a few days of 
posting them, thus breaking our links -- we apologize for the inconvenience.

***------------------------****-------------------------***

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+++ UPCOMING EVENTS

No events to announce this week.

***------------------------****-------------------------***

+++ TRAVEL DESTINATIONS PICKS

=> Night Life in Kokubuncho, Sendai
Neon lights, alcohol, fun, repeat

Kokubuncho is the largest entertainment district in Tohoku and is 
located in the center of Sendai, in Miyagi Prefecture. About 3,000 
restaurants and bars are located there. Many people flock to this area 
every day, specifically during the weekend after a long week of work. 
The area is composed of various restaurants, Izakaya (Japanese style 
pubs), bars, nightclubs, etc . If you are looking to party, you came to 
the right place.

Neon lights, animated conversations, and a warm atmosphere are the 
characteristics that define the most lively district of Sendai. 
Kokubunchô is basically divided into three distinct zones.The first one 
with cheap food outlets, and pachinko shops. The next area is mostly 
occupied by salarymen (office employees), restaurants and bars are of 
better quality, slightly more expensive and generally playing a little 
more on the traditional Japanese restaurant side. Finally, there is the 
"pink zone" which is the part composed of girls bars, also commonly 
called "host or hostess clubs', entry fees are usually recurring and 
they push you to consume. Be ready to blaze through your budget in this 
type of establishment!

http://en.japantravel.com/miyagi/night-life-in-kokubunch%C3%B4-sendai/31387

=> Okazaki Fireworks Festival, Aichi-ken
A heartwarming display of designer fireworks

Fireworks festivals or Hanabi-kai are some of the most spectacular 
festivals in Japan. Put on mostly during summer time, the multicolor 
fireworks light up the sky in many decorative ways. Okazaki is one of 
those places, and hosts such a festival every year on the first Saturday 
of August.

This old castle town has a remarkable history as the birthplace of the 
Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa. Here, the tradition of making gunpowder for 
fireworks has continued for hundreds of years, and every year this 
festival produces new designs for spectators. The volume of fireworks is 
impressive - with  20,000 different projectiles launched into sky above 
the Otogawa River in a single display.

People come from all over Aichi Prefecture to view the fireworks 
painting the sky. Usually people reserve their places one day before, 
near or on the banks of the Otogawa river, so it becomes very crowded. 
Reserved seating is also available and provides the best view, these are 
expensive, though.

http://en.japantravel.com/aichi/okazaki-fireworks-festival/30574

***------------------------****-------------------------***

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+++ ABOUT US

STAFF
Written by: Terrie Lloyd (terrie.lloyd at japaninc.com)

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