Last semester we, Nour and Evelien, worked on a MediaLAB project in Amsterdam. When we were asked whether we wanted to go to Japan for another project we of course couldn’t say no! So 3 weeks ago we arrived in Fukuoka, Japan, where we are slowly starting to settle down.
About a week ago we finally started to get into the project. The topic is redesigning the workspace for ageing employees, and it is a joint collaboration between Kyushu University and Re:public Inc. in Japan, and MediaLAB in Amsterdam. Our team consists of Nour and I, who are both from the Netherlands, and Maru and Marina, two Japanese students from Kyushu University. At MediaLAB Amsterdam there is another team working on the same topic, with who we are exchanging information. This is very interesting as we can compare our findings and see differences between the Dutch and Japanese culture regarding this topic. It’ll also be very interesting to see the different solutions we will come up with.
Here in Japan the topic of ageing employees is very relevant, as the society here is quickly “greying out”. If you think there are many older people in the Netherlands, look at Japan. Last year it was reported by The Japan Times that 25 percent of Japanese people are aged 65 or over! At the same time women are getting fewer and fewer children, which means that the proportion of people of employable age vs. people of retirement age is quickly decreasing. This is the reason why the topic of the ageing employee might be even more relevant here than in Europe, as there will quickly not be enough working people to provide the pensions for the elderly ones.
At the same time Japan has a very particular working culture, and you might have heard scary stories about people who are working themselves to death. Although we haven’t seen this happening in practice yet, we have heard of locals that the quantity of work someone delivers (number of hours) is often regarded as more important than the quality of work. It is one of the main reasons people work insane hours here. And although this attitude is starting to change, it does so only slowly. At the same time there is a culture of having a drink after work with your colleagues and boss, often till late, and it is seen as very important for career advancement. It already sounds tiring to me, and it must sound even more tiring to a 70-year old. These are all things we are trying to take into account when conducting research and interviews.
Apart from the project going to Japan has already been very interesting in itself, as the culture here is in many ways very different from the Dutch one. As this is our project blog, Nour and I have started (separate) blogs / vlogs of our life here. Here you can find my (Evelien’s) blog: https://fukuokahereicome.wordpress.com/ , and we will soon be updating you on Nour’s vlog too. So if you’re interested in knowing more about our experiences here and impressions of Japan feel free to check it out!