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This article was kindly written for the SDC by member @Doctor Alan.

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It’s getting closer to Christmas, and many of us are starting to think about holidays if we haven’t done so already. I’d like to share my experience with one of the most interesting destinations – Tokyo. It takes nearly ten hours from Sydney, and a bit over nine hours from Brisbane, so it’s worth going premium economy for the added comfort.



My first experience with Japan was when I was working for Fujitsu in Sydney. I was sent over to Japan for training initially and to see the way in which Fujitsu was able to automate its manufacture of disk drives, printers, etc. Later on, I was lucky enough, as OEM Technical Support Manager, to be invited to accompany the marketing guys on one of their regular trips to Tokyo, the reason being that I could put the case for added spares for demonstration equipment. Australia is a fairly small market for the Japanese, and when a new piece of equipment was sent over for demonstrations to customers, there was usually only one device (printer, usually) and no spares. If the printer developed a fault, it put the company in a poor light regarding its reputation in the market. At least, that was my belief.

On the plane, I was situated near a window and got into conversation with a Japanese gentleman who told me that as soon as the aircraft arrived, he would go straight to work – at about 7 am. This was the general practice – competition for employment was such that no time could be wasted. It gave me my first insight into the Japanese work ethic. I mentioned that I was sitting near a window because women were generally placed in the centre row of seats – it was assumed that men would consider window rows (in a 2-3-2 aircraft) a superior seat. This gave me another clue about Japanese culture.

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