Little Blue-Eyed Gaijin Book to Be Published

[Mulboyne]

"The Blue-Eyed Salaryman" by Niall Murtagh

Why on earth would anyone give up a life on the open road for the regimen of a vast Japanese conglomerate? And is it really so different in Japan from everywhere else?...After graduating from University in Dublin, Niall Murtagh...closed the door on his adventurous life and made an extraordinary flip, settling down in Japan. After studying there, he jumped in at the deep end and joined Mitsubishi as a Salaryman - a man in a shiny suit with a shiny attache case in a conglomerate with 300,000 employees. Niall Murtagh describes the life of a salaryman in detail and with humour. He takes the reader behind the scenes of this enormous organisation, showing the peculiar nature of Japanese capitalism and management culture. From his office chair he also reflects on where his life might have gone. What led to this extraordinary change in direction and why, despite the disillusionment, is it so hard to leave?

[Taro Toporific]

Questions and Answers


Q3: And the worst [thing about working in a big Japanese company]?

A3: Having my (correct) English criticised, and being told in no uncertain terms to use Mitsubishi-Engrish or else. Or being told that taking a personal holiday for any reason is a privilege, not a right, no matter how many untaken annual leave days I have.
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http://www.niallmurtagh.info/seikatsu.html
"River near the company flat: one of the few spaces in Amagasaki City not concreted over... ":?:

[Neo-Rio]

Questions and Answers


Q3: And the worst [thing about working in a big Japanese company]?

A3: Having my (correct) English criticised, and being told in no uncertain terms to use Mitsubishi-Engrish or else. Or being told that taking a personal holiday for any reason is a privilege, not a right, no matter how many untaken annual leave days I have.

The choir's listening. Preach away ! :P

[vir-jin]

has anybody experience with living in one of those firm sponsored salaryman castles? I'd really like to know how that feels

[dimwit]

Yeap! They are frightening. I stayed in one for about six months and other than the fact that it was a great way to save money (the apartments are HUGELY subsidized) the living conditions were definitely prison-like. They are seriously bad places to live if you value your sanity.

[Captain Japan]

"River near the company flat: one of the few spaces in Amagasaki City not concreted over... ":?:

I'll get my boss on the phone early Monday to see if I can rectify this oversight.

[Captain Japan]

[Mulboyne]

It was just published a couple of weeks ago. I saw it in a London bookshop yesterday selling for 16.99 sterling for a hardback (cheaper om Amazon UK). It didn't look very substantial.

[kamome]

I think I might get this book and keep it on my shelf just in case I ever get the insane notion to relocate to Japan again.

[Captain Japan]

It was just published a couple of weeks ago. I saw it in a London bookshop yesterday selling for 16.99 sterling for a hardback (cheaper om Amazon UK). It didn't look very substantial.

If he got Mitsubishi's approval to do it then it wouldn't be surprising that there is little of interest.

[exsalaryman]

> If he got Mitsubishi's approval to do it then it wouldn't be
> surprising that there is little of interest.

I'm the ex-mitsubishi salaryman who is responsible for the book!

Approval? No way was I going to go through company bullshit
and then get told to change everything, after working for years
on this project. I did ask the union guy in Osaka in late 2003,
just to see what he'd say. He told me to ask my boss
(who would have passed the buck to someone else.)
So I decided to quit before it was published.

If you want an expose of everything that stinks in Mitsubishi,
then dont buy my book. I tried to steer a middle course,
pointing out the narrow mindset of headoffice, their
reaction to corporate scandals, etc., and I tried
to see the funny side of the company. I'm sort of sympathetic
to most (but not all) my ex-colleagues, but I am against the
bureaucracy and narrow-mindedness of top management.
Also, I didnt write the blurb myself (about the shiny suit).
My publisher did, and he is the one who decided to publish.

best

niall

[Taro Toporific]

...I tried to steer a middle course, pointing out the narrow mindset of headoffice, their reaction to corporate scandals, etc., and I tried to see the funny side of the company

Cho-kool Niall!
I'm glad you found usego-surfing as several other authors have found us the same way.

[Captain Japan]

> If he got Mitsubishi's approval to do it then it wouldn't be
> surprising that there is little of interest.

I'm the ex-mitsubishi salaryman who is responsible for the book!

niall

Welcome to FG! It is about time you found it...

[Ketou]

> If he got Mitsubishi's approval to do it then it wouldn't be
> surprising that there is little of interest.

I'm the ex-mitsubishi salaryman who is responsible for the book!

niall

Welcome to FG! It is about time you found it...

Yes, you're obviously a truly f*cked gaijin.
I worked for one of the giant jp firms for seven years and the logic of management is a wonder to behold. It was a good thing you escaped!
BTW, is your book worth buying?

[Mulboyne]

Japan Times: Still blue-eyed, but not a 'salaryman' anymore

..."I remember at the job interview back in 1990, when I was asked if I was ready to come up with brilliant new ideas for the hundreds of things Mitsubishi made, I agreed to work for a year or maybe two. But to be honest, the longer I stayed, the harder it was to give up the very nice salary, thank you, and all the perks"...He put his story together over six years, writing when he wanted to write, which was more often than not. "I wanted to explain both sides, to help foreigners better understand Japanese companies and they to better understand us. I don't exaggerate, but rather poke gentle fun." The hardback edition was published in the U.K. in 2005; the paperback came out this year. A Japanese-language edition appeared on bookshelves three weeks ago...

[Captain Japan]

[amdg]

I picked up this book on my way through KIX airport a few weeks ago for a bit of light reading on the plane. At just over 200 pages, you can finish it in one sitting if you like. The overall impression I was left with was that this book could have been written about any foreigner in Japan working for any Japanese company. Just change a few names and dates and it’s a perfect way for you to look back at your own time in Japan and reminisce. And this interchangability that is probably the greatest weakness of the book for me– there were no surprises or special insights for a long-term Japan resident. While trying to be fair, I don’t think there was a single incident in the book where I thought, “Hey, something like that has never happened to me!”, or “Hey, that’s a new and interesting perspective on Japan!”

Of course, this book’s intended audience is certainly not long-term Japan residents and this is evident from the cover which bears quotes from readers, like “hilarious”, “astonishing” and “fascinating”. I guess it might be one or all of those things for Japan newbies, but not for anyone who has spent some time in Japan. For residents, I would offer the more apt descriptions “familiar”,” shallow”, and “bleak”.

“Familiar” – Murtagh makes a pretty good acount of all of the problematic cultural topics that face foreigners in Japan, particularly those facing people who work for Japanese companies. One by one he knocks off these predictable targets – restrictive housing, groupthink, beauracracy, corruption, environmental mismanagement, food, manners, heirarcical relationships, xenophobia etc. However, rarely are any of these topics discussed with anything more than superficial explanation or brief retelling of how he coped or how they were left unresolved for him.

“Shallow” – As said before, this book is not tailored for people who already know Japan. Those who know a bit of Japanese language will quickly note that all the key characters’ identities have been disguised with descriptive aliases – Urusai-san, Ms. Shinsetsu, etc., which, while I can understand the pressure not to use real names, seems a little bit dismissive of these real-life people. And it comes through in the stories – the author’s failure to connect with these ‘characters’ on anything but the barest minumum level in order to keep up the appearance of a working relationship.

“Bleak” – It may be true that an autobiography without hardship and tradgedy makes for dull reading, but the reader of “salaryman” can’t help but be left with the idea that Murtagh ‘did his time’ in Mitsubishi in much the same way that Ivan Denisovich ‘did his time’ in the Gulag. Major life events such as marriage, having a child and family holidays are all glossed over as if they never really happened. Which is strange because, although the book is billed as “life working in Mitsubishi”, it certainly doesn’t restrict itself to that subject matter, and often crosses over into his everyday problems dealing with friends, family, authorities and neighbours in Japan. A good example of this is when he briefly comments on the courting of his soon-to-be wife, saying little more than Miyuki's parents approved of the marriage because of his Mitsubishi credentials. While the romantic details of his life may not be any of our business, the omission of them all, save for the mean/snarky observations, leaves me cold. And the book is peppered with similar commentary, which I find hard to label as anything else but disdainful.

Near the end of his book, the author opines that Carlos Ghosn would never have been able to rise to be the head of Nissan if he had joined them as a foreigner and tried to work his way up from the bottom. While this opinion rings true for those who know, it’s still a misunderstanding of the situation in my opinion. It’s like saying, “that elephant wouldn’t be so big if it were a mouse”. It tastes like sour grapes, to this reader.


Verdict: For those with an interest in Japan but with little first-hand knowledge, this book could be interesting. However, you should bear in mind that it should be read like an expose that doesn't name names. And for that, it will be partially unsatisfying.

For those already in Japan... wait for the movie to come out.