For the first time in more than 20 years, I went back in Japan. To me, having grown up in the States, it’s always a really funny place to visit. There are elements of familiarity for sure, and parts where you feel like you’ve landed on Mars. Yet, the country will always hold a very special place in my heart because my first real job out of college was teaching English in Tokyo about 35 years ago, which seems both crazy and depressing at the same time.

The truth is, though, I missed it. A lot. 

In particular, I was reminded of a few reasons why I really loved the place.   

First, the precision. Everyone talks about the trains. That’s because it’s a matter of course that they all run on time. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Yet, it’s not just the trains. In the rice fields of Akita where we were staying for a few days, you could see these perfectly lined rows of plants (which are just now being sown in the earth). At the restaurants we ate at, without fail, the food has been presented with care and perfectly cooked every single time, whether that was a ramen place or a Michelin-rated restaurant. Go to the basement of the Mitsukoshi department store in Ginza and watch a sales clerk wrap any gift. It’s like seeing art being made.

The bottom line is that when the average Japanese person does a job, they care about how well they do it. That goes for the women who greet you at the hotel, bowing at the exact angle, to the janitor mopping the floor, to the gardener pruning the bonsai trees around Kinkakuji (the Golden Temple) in Kyoto (the picture I took, which I used on this blog).  

The truth is, every job matters in Japan, and the people responsible for those jobs care about how well it’s done. The reasons behind that are certainly complex. It is still a society where no one wants to stand out for the wrong reasons. But it’s refreshing in that the Japanese mentality is more about “us” and “we” and less about “me, me, me” that you will often see in the U.S.

For example, if a train isn’t running on time, it’s often waiting for a connecting train to arrive (which may have had a delay due to weather or another unforeseen circumstance) so that the people don’t miss their connections. Last week, I was at a train station in Tokyo with my family, and I was looking up at the board to see how much a ticket was to Omotesando, one of the fashionable districts of the city. The station attendant saw me and realized I wasn’t Japanese. Even though I could read the sign and spoke to him in Japanese, he insisted that he take all my coins, ask me in broken in English what place I was going to and the number of tickets, then bought the tickets for me (through the machine), which I could have easily done myself. He then took all my coins and exchanged my smaller coins for bigger ones so that I could now have fewer 1-yen coins.

It was rather amazing.

Unique Customer Service: Why So Many Tourists Are Going to Japan and Not the U.S.

Way back when I lived there 35 years ago, there were certainly a number of foreigners in Tokyo. But now, throughout all of Japan’s major cities, there are so many foreign tourists. Indeed, last year, Japan was ranked by Condé Nast Traveler as the number one tourist destination in the world.[1] And when we went through immigration, it certainly seemed that way with what we saw were massive lines. We ran into English, Irish, French, Germans, Australians, Indians, Vietnamese, Thais, Chinese, Koreans, and people from the U.S. during our trip throughout the country.

By contrast, when we came back to the DC, the foreign visa/passport line coming into the U.S. had only 10 to 15 people on full flights coming from any number of countries. And this is our big tourist season![2]

When you think about it, why wouldn’t people want to travel to a place where they get treated well and where they’re welcome? Where the airports and train stations now routinely make announcements in Japanese and 3 other languages – English, Korean, and Chinese. Where people will, for the most part, try to help you if you don’t speak the language. Where they’ll take extra time to present you with your food in a way that’s not only visually memorable but also amazing taste-wise. Where everything is clean and generally safe, including the streets and public toilets.

The General Lack of Entitlement Among the People

There’s a great phrase the Japanese use: “Gambarimasu,” which loosely translated means, “I’ll try hard (in the face of any adversity).” If you had to ask me, I think it’s one of the main aspects of “the Japanese way” – you do what’s expected and required of you, regardless of how hard it is or what you might personally want. And this is regardless of your age. For example, the major tourist attractions make people walk often for miles, up and down hills). There are no escalators or elevators, even for older people. That’s tough on the one hand, but on the other, it makes the greater population withstand challenges that are, in the end, probably good for them. 

For example, one thing I complained about jokingly to my old Japanese friends was the lack of garbage cans in public places. 35 years ago, there used to be places to throw things out (especially after you bought drinks at one of the the billions of vending machines that are spread around every city). But after 9/11, apparently the Japanese government removed all potential places for bombs or explosives etc. That included the garbage receptacles. Yet, there is no garbage on the street. The Japanese will carry around the empty plastic bottle with them for miles until they return home or find a convenience store, which has them. Do the Japanese complain about it? Sure some do. But for the most part, they just deal with it.  

That’s not to say that some Japanese people don’t feel entitled; they certainly do. But it’s not to the extent that we deal with it in the U.S., where everyone seems to think they’re owed something by someone. And no one wants to do anything that may be a minor inconvenience to them. 

Conclusion

From a marketing perspective or even a personal standpoint, I think there’s so much to be taken away from going through an experience like this. To me, it’s a reminder that if you take the time to do a job well, if you care for people you interact with, or you look out for the greater good, you’ll attract people to you. Just like Japan has done. It’s not a perfect place by any means, but honestly, you could do a lot worse.

[1] https://www.cntraveler.com/story/top-countries-in-the-world

[2] Yes, much of this is due to the fact that our current administration has made it clear foreigners aren’t welcome here, which is so dumb and will only hurt the economy.