Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
Copyright © 2011, 1997 by Laura Kriska
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-4629-0014-5
First edition, 1997
Revised edition, 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kriska, Laura.
The accidental office lady : an American woman in corporate Japan / Laura Kriska.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4629-0014-5
1. Kriska, Laura. 2. Women executives--United States--Biography. 3. Women executives--Japan--Biography. 4. Corporate culture--Japan. 5. Automobile industry and trade--Japan--Management. 6. Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha--Biography. I. Title.
HD6054.4.U6K7526 2011
338.7’629222092--dc22 [B]
2011001175
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To
The Office Ladies
Contents
5 Conformity and the Helicopter Ride 102
7 Finding Myself on the Map 121
Acknowledgments
FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND KINDNESS During my time in Japan, I would like to thank Shigeyoshi Yoshida, Mieko Ogiwara, Yumiko Shoji, Hiroko Kanno, Kumiko Hashimoto, Yasuko Kodama, Akiko Onoguchi, Kayoko Furokawa, Ayako Nishiyama, Yoko Sashi, Michio Iwata, Tetsuo Chino, Toshiro Yamada, Moritaka Higuchi, Tom Umeno, Koji Arinami, Rika Takeuchi, Masakazu Iino, Tokiko Iino, Eric Peabody, Bret Anderson, Susan Insley, and Scott Whitlock.
I am also grateful to the following friends and family members who provided encouragement and various kinds of support during the writing of this book: Le Anne Schreiber, Richard Locke, Leila Phillip, Alden Matthews, Laura Grenning, Alex Cox, Bobby Rahal and team, Marcy Mowrey Gauch, Heather Swain, Jiyun Shi, my brother David, my parents Brian and Sally Kriska, and especially Patrick Gunn, Declan, Jaden Li and Mason.
Foreword
MY ORIGINAL INTENT when writing The Accidental Office Lady was to help Americans learn about Japan. With its humble and polite people and seemingly inaccessible language, Japan has always been a hard country for Americans to understand. Yet interest in what was then the second largest economy in the world was high. Since I had been born in Tokyo and attended Waseda University as an exchange student before working in Japan, I wanted to offer my insights to other Americans and contribute to a better understanding of a country that I loved and felt was frequently misunderstood.
Without an academic background or an important job around which to focus my book, I simply wrote about my daily experiences of working in a large Japanese company and living in Tokyo. I did not argue theoretical positions or support particular business strategies and instead described specific encounters that were thrilling, confusing or both. It was only after publishing the book and beginning my career as a consultant that I realized my stories resonated with others. I began to see cultural patterns and tendencies among the people I worked with that helped me make