Mr. Yu hai bang

Dream comes true: studying and working in Japan

I decided to enroll in a master's program in commerce in Japan after majoring in business Japanese in a university in China. I had been very interested in Japan, impassioned by anime (Japanese animation). As I had learned Japanese, I wanted to work in a Japanese company so that I could have opportunities to put my Japanese proficiency to practical use. During the first year of my master's course, I went job hunting and had an offer from Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. After joining the company, assigned to the Human Resources Department, I was engaged in recruitment and training for the Research and Development Department for two years. In this, my third year in the company, my main mission is to manage and conduct global training programs for engineers at our overseas branches.

Transferring cutting-edge technologies in Japan to the world

Although I heard from an older friend that Japanese companies were severe and closed to non-Japanese, I have never felt that way since I joined the company. As symbolized by Mr. Carlos Ghosn, the president of Nissan, diversity is one of the priorities of our company and globalization of workforce has successfully taken place. I personally feel very comfortable, too, with our working environment and think that Nissan has a culture in which foreign talents are highly empowered.

Recently, we have observed a dynamic shift of automobile demand from Japan to emerging economies (especially China, Thailand and India), resulting in an urgent need to establish a system of automobile development and production at overseas bases. A key to establishing this system, we believe, is an advancement of the technologies of engineers overseas, it is a matter of great importance that we transfer our state-of-art technologies fostered in Japan to branches in developing nations. I am currently engaged in the planning and management of the training program for this technology transfer to be successfully implemented.

As you may imagine, in the global environment in which I work, English is of great importance for work; I communicate in English with staff in overseas local branches. I feel the world is becoming more and more connected. Japanese proficiency is, however, very important and you need to master the language if you work in Japan. In my case, my main working language is Japanese; daily conversation, meetings and presentations in my office are all conducted in Japanese, making it a must to understand and be fluent in the language.

Japanese proficiency required of a reliable professional

As a business professional, you would do well to put the Japanese language to use politely. A mistake that does not affect anything in daily conversation might make the impression that you are not a trustworthy business professional. Therefore, I think terms of respect have an importance as a rudiment for professionals working in a Japanese environment. Students can do without honorific and humble expressions?by adding a simple form of polite expression ですます at the end of sentence will make communication OK. A working professional should, however, be comfortable in commanding the natural usage of those polite expressions. In view of the fact that, when applying to Nissan, I filled in my application form in Japanese and felt that in interviews the interviewers were verifying my communication skills in Japanese, a key to making a success in job hunting in Japan must be mastering a business-level Japanese proficiency.

Learning and mastering natural Japanese, setting a BJT score as goal

I believe the "Career Development Program for Foreign Students in Japan" helped me to improve my Japanese proficiency. This program, cosponsored by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Technology of Japan, was intended to help foreign students find jobs in Japan. It provides a curriculum including business Japanese classes as well as sessions helping students to fill in application forms and to prepare for interviews. This program provided me with the opportunity to learn business Japanese, practical and up-dated to the current business environment, which I had never sufficiently mastered in the academic curriculum offered by my university. In order to measure the improvement in Japanese proficiency, BJT was systematically offered, letting those who were in the program evaluate their Japanese proficiency. I realized the necessity of being able to understand not only the Japanese language, but also the business culture of Japanese companies and to put the language to proper use so as to obtain a high BJT score. My efforts to learn Japanese paid off; a command of Japanese is very useful working in my office, which I reached by learning through setting a BJT score as a goal.

Business Japanese proficiency opens up the future

Working for a global Japanese company, my dream has come true; a dream to start a world-spanning career in Japan and to be active globally. I think Japanese proficiency has helped me greatly in having invaluable working experiences in Japan because, looking back on the past, I find my career started when I decided to learn Japanese and study in Japan. I hope, in my future, that I will work as an expatriate in a country outside Japan?such as in emerging economies?after gaining more experiences in personnel development and human resources management.