Working in Japan - Japanese view of foreign scientists

Found this article online:

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Flats/7513/gaisci/chap4.html

My experience was a little different. I was an American Fulbright Scholar to Japan and placed at Tohoku University.

I had a little misunderstanding with my first lab, which was in MEMS. Tohoku U.'s in the countryside and surprisingly, never heard of Fulbright so they didn't understand that a Fulbrighter is a representative of the US and is in a foreign country not only to conduct research, but to also learn as much about the culture as possible.

The first lab believed heavily that an engineer has no need for culture, yet I got in trouble every time I misunderstood the culture. I was born and raised in the US and I went to American schools. But to the professor and secretary, because I have an Asian face I was automatically expected to know Japanese cultural rules.

I found another lab, the Ohmi Solid State Electronics Lab, also known as NICHe and went to work there. There was definitely some racism, especially coming from this Chinese guy named Pan, as well as a few of the Japanese. One Japanese guy remarked to one of the only other female members in the lab about me, 'She's from America, but she's just a Chinese.'

One moment stuck out in my mind. When Dr. Ohmi, (who is a very kind man), wanted to take a group picture with the foreigner engineers -- and it did not include me. Dr. Ohmi accepted me in to his lab, allowed me to continue my research on salary, basically, did me big favors. It's hard to get in to a prestigious lab even as a Japanese person, you have to be extraordinary.

What was staring me in the face was, I wasn't seen as an American. Not by other Americans and not by Asians.

It brought back a lot of childhood memories of being left out. In many ways I have been able to blend in to Japanese society because of my looks and my personality, a good mix of New York and East Asian upbringing. But I will always consider myself American, even if no one else does.

Another interesting situation happened when I was working at TransCosmos in Shibuya. My biggest disadvantage was that I didn't speak fluent Japanese. I could pass, but that usually doesn't cut it. My engineering lab's main language was English. All reports and papers had to be in English. But I got hired by TransCosmos. This was another case of me getting in through the 'back door'. Being a Fulbrighter, I had a lot of connections. A sempai, (a nice Japanese professor who was a Fulbrighter to America back in the day when Fulbright first started), knew another man who knew the president of TransCosmos.

As a result, I got a job and lucky enough, I got a Japanese boss, Richard, who grew up in the West. The interview was a really funny situation also. I brought in my resume and Richard and another co-worker were talking to me. The co-worker never looked at my resume and Richard knew about my school and my scholarship and really wanted me onboard. When I told them I would like to work in design the co-worker said, 'I'm sorry, but you must have an engineering degree.'

Richard pointed at my resume. 'She does. It's on her resume right here. Mechanical engineering.'

The co-worker was floored. A series of events happened after I got accepted and I also got in to Columbia University. In Japan, creds are everything and the co-worker had nothing to say after that. Richard ended up putting project after project on me. I was a bit stressed, I'll tell you that. I asked him one day how come he's not asking the other engineers to take on these projects.

'They're all yes-men. You take initiative.' Richard responded. Or did he say, 'you've got the balls to do it.'?

I have to admit, I will debate with Richard even while everyone just nods their head if I think there's a better way to do something or something needs to be examined more thoroughly. I don't do it rudely, we have a good rapport.

I still look back at my experiences in Japan as fond memories. There were some shaky times, but all in all I always go back to visit my old lab. I had lunch with my former professor and stayed with my former landlady in Tokyo. I met some great people there and they far outshined the unsavory elements I met along the way.