Japanese Client

The regitration hall in Taipei. Irene was as thin as a piece of paper.

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I am in the love hate relationship with my Japanese client in Tokyo. Working in Tokyo is always like taking a vacation. Unlike my other clients, who wants to make sure they are making the most bang of their money. Japanese clients are very relax. With my Malaysia clients, my presence in the project room was maticulously timed. The project manager would pop in the project room from time to time to see if I am slacking (that's rarely the case, they usually throw me more than I can chew). Some even asked for a meeting on daily basis so she can monitor my progress (in her own words, she wants to provide assistance and didn't want me to waste time investigating solution if getting stuck).

Things are so different in Tokyo. They wouldn't want me to attend meetings, my Tokyo colleagues would go to the meeting and come back with clients' requirements. I am basically free to do whatever I want while waiting before a confirmed specification can be signed off (which is never the case, Japanese clients never want to sign off anything).

That is the bad thing about working for Japanese. In Japanese clients' mind, there is never an end to a project, no one dares to declare a projectd is finished. In Japanese term, "Customer is God". We dutifully work out whatever they wish to have. Of course we would like to go extra mile to show our good wills, however, I do feel that we are being too nice and going too far. The side effect of this is usually a lengthy and overly engineered structure. When the consultant has gone or the clients' risk officier has left the position, the system would normally be abandoned.

I was told this is Japanese way, a project definition document is only used as reference. The clients like to put things into our mouth (you or your sales person promised this last time we talked) and, therefore, we have to deliver although it is not included in the contract.

Definitely not a healthy way of running a project (no guarantee to meet the deadline and budgt)yet Japanese clients seem OK to bear the extra cost.