In alignment with the Milken Institute’s mission to resource innovation for global issues and Milken Family Foundation’s mission to invest in young leaders' education and global understanding of the world, I hoped to gather insights to further my understanding of international business contexts working on technical innovation in Asia. Thus, with the support of the Milken Travel Fund, I visited Tokyo, Japan, to research Japanese work cultures and interview technologists in the area.

My trip began with discussions with software engineers and technical managers in Japan. I focused my research on Rakuten, a Japanese technology company based in Tokyo and founded in 1997. This company was particularly interesting from a research perspective because of its unique culture as a technology-first company headquartered in Japan but actively seeking to internationalize and recruit employees outside of Japan. I visited the office of Rakuten in Tokyo, and I spoke to several software engineers, engineering managers, and other employees in the Rakuten building to learn about their work culture and attitudes towards technology.

One software engineer, referred to as Alex going forward, was a skilled technologist and software engineer who had moved from the United States to Japan in order to work at Rakuten. He provided me with a valuable perspective on the nuances of Japan's work culture, describing the emphasis on cooperation and harmony in the Japanese workplaces. For example, he mentioned that in Japan, people care more about purpose, harmony, and their contribution to the greater community in their work than the size of their financial compensation as compared to the states. Similar to how some people in the states work for nonprofits in order to feel part of a bigger impact, he noted that this desire for harmony, impact, and contribution was strong throughout most of Japan’s workforce. He also mentioned that these same feelings could increase responses of fear and guilt if an employee wanted to leave a company.

I learned that this emphasis on harmony played a large role in the workplace and Japanese society as a whole. Teams were treated as larger, cohesive units with shared objectives and a collective sense of purpose. In this way, I admired the high levels of cooperation and teamwork in Japan’s technology workplace and business culture. I also realized that this dedication to harmony wasn't just limited to the office environment, and that it trickled over to many other aspects of life in Japan. For example, I saw reflections of Japan’s cultural emphasis on working together for the collective rather than solely for the individual in their immaculate public transportation systems, clean public restrooms, and reservations of entire train cars specifically for women late at night. This strong sense of responsibility, collective decision-making, and respecting hierarchies resulted in a very unified and cohesive culture even in their technology scene.

Through my interviews, I also learned that with respect to how technology and software is built in teams, technical work, design, and planning in Japan is surprisingly similar to the United States. For example, because most coding languages and tools were originally developed in the United States, many coding styles and practices— from code to coding comments, pair programming, and scrum meetings— were all conducted in English, even in Japan. This was an interesting observation, as it was one of my first times learning about how software engineers outside of the United States code and program large applications and software systems. In addition, I learned that at Rakuten, all work meetings were in English in order to make the company more globalized. They also hired a high number of international employees to further go towards this globalization goal. Furthermore, because many coding practices and cultures originate from and are propagated through online communities in the West, I learned that the coding practices used in Japan were very similar to the United States despite having such different general working cultures.

With respect to non-technical work cultures, Alex mentioned that even though engineering work and conversations were usually in English, the cultural dynamics would shift sharply during lunch, breaks, and between meetings at work. For example, because Rakuten has a high number of international employees, he noted that many of his coworkers came from very different backgrounds, and the way he spoke in the workplace and what topics were brought up varied highly based on the nationalities of the people who were in a particular conversation. Importantly, when speaking with a coworker who was Japanese, Alex noted that there were more strict and careful formalities to make sure he understood hierarchical dynamics in the workplace in order to have an appropriate conversation within the workplace.