Today’s Business Slang is “Genba”.

In the business world “genba” often means “Sales site”, meaning customer site or shops/stores.

And, generally speaking, many Japanese top management think that “Genba” is the most important.

Therefore, they often visit customers, watch the sales situation by their own eyes, listen to the customers’ voice by their own ears, and make decisions based on thier own experiences.

On the other hand, Western top management make logical decisions based on the data and information gathered by their subordinates.

Thus, they make up their mind in the office without visiting “Genba”.

Both types have pros and cons and it is difficult to tell which is better.

Which type do you belong to?

Today’s Business Japanese is “Rengou”.

You may often hear this word recently because of it is time for “Shuntou” now.

The official name is “Japan Trade Union Confederation” and was established in 1989.  The current number of memebrs is about 7 mil.

Their mission is to discuss and negotiate in order to improve the treatment and payment of Japanese labor.

Ms. Yoshino was elected as the first female chairperson of “Rengou”.

However, one of the main causes why Japanese wages has not increases for the past 30 years is told to be lies in “Rengou”.

40-50 years ago “Kokutetsu (Japanese National Railways)” often did strikes, but no company do strikes these years.

As a result, collective bargaining power of labor has weaken and “Rengou” could not make the labor treatment better.

If trains and airplanes stop, many people suffer from it, but not to do strikes has such kind of aspect, too.

Today’s business Japanese is “Keidanren”.

Probably, many of you have ever heard of this word before.  The official name is “Nihon Keizai Dantai Rengou-kai” (Japan Business Federation), consisting of １，４９４ Japanese main companies.

Then, what do they do?

They discuss and make decisions about key issues and topics they are facing and are taking actions to Japanese government, Labor unions, and citizens.

However, since the foreign firms and Japanese growing new companies do not participate in “Keidanren”, recently Keidanren’s opinions are told to be only a limited voice and do not reflect everyone’s opinion.