I would differ from the view expressed in the July 29 letter "The blame for nonacceptance": that foreigners are effectively excluded from traditional Japanese manufacturing companies. I am a permanent staff member (seisha-in) of a mainstream Japanese electronics company in the Kansai area. I hold this position, including direct staff responsibility, even though I am not completely proficient in Japanese. And in my two years here, I have met other foreigners similarly employed.
Yes, foreign seisha-in are an exceptional minority within the Japanese foreign workforce, but we do exist and we do cope with the responsibilities and added challenges of long working hours, language/cultural differences, procedures, paperwork, etc. -- even though our career-promotion prospects are slim.
It is my personal opinion that the dilemma of "nonacceptance" might be alleviated if a form of mutual understanding could bridge traditional Japanese corporate management, hierarchy, collectivism, the "do-everything-yourself" approach, and nemawashi (consensus-building before meetings) with the unique strengths that foreigners can bring, such as specific-area expertise, anticipatory planning and management for contingencies, result-oriented skills, and the willingness to accept higher risk levels (compared to Japanese salarymen).
If all parties put less emphasis on "blame," then this type of symbiosis could lead to greater acceptance of foreign seisha-in and, in principle, to added advancement of core Japanese manufacturing technologies. The recruitment of foreigners as salarymen in Japan can be gauged at Web sites specializing in employment opportunities for foreigners (such as http://www.tsubasainc.net/). The most difficult challenge we face is to become fluent in Japanese technical writing.
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