Essay from Expatriate at HKE

Essay
Essay from Expatriate at HKE
HATTORI Koji

1. Introduction

2. Jingzhou City, Hubei Province

KYB launched a joint-venture project with theHenglong Group of China in August 2017. The project
was implemented under the company's policy to shift thebusiness base of electric power steering (EPS) for
passenger vehicles from Japan to China.
Before that, KYB had surveyed parts suppliers inChina as part of its cost reduction activity for EPS parts.
The Henglong Group was among those with whom KYB
had already gotten in touch. However, a joint-venture
relationship is quite different from a business partnershipin scale and relevance. I remember that I recognized thelaunch of the project as a big milestone.
I am, and was at that time too, in charge of cost planning.
I was involved in the joint-venture project to study thecommercial feasibility of the project from the cost
perspective. Actually, I was quite frustrated about thelimited information we could obtain from the other party
because cost information is very sensitive until bothparties enter into a formal joint-venture contract.
In April 2018, the joint-venture contract was concluded
and Hubei Henglong & KYB Automobile ElectricSteering System Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "HKE") wasformally established. To set up a cost planning organization
for the first time for the Henglong Group, I was assigned
to work for HKE in China, which was my second
expatriation following the first one to the U.S. in 2005. I
moved to China with five colleagues of mine at the end of
November 2018.

HKE is located in Jingzhou City, Hubei Province inChina. Jingzhou is about 200 km inland and west ofWuhan in the same province, which is considered to bethe origin of COVID-19 that continues to severely affectthe world today. Compared to Japan, Jingzhou City is
located at a latitude south of Tanegashima, which may
give you the impression that Jingzhou is a tropical place.
However, the climate there is very similar to that of Kani
City, Gifu Prefecture in Japan where Gifu North Plant islocated. While in the summer it is so hot and humid in
Jingzhou that the temperature rises to 35°C or more forconsecutive days, it sometimes snows in the winter.
At the end of 2018, in the month after I was sent toJingzhou, several centimeters of snow fell. I heard thatsnow accumulation was quite rare in recent years. Smallchildren were playing in a lively way with the snow in thecourtyard of the apartment where I lived. That was myfirst experience to spend the year-end period in China
and I felt happy to see scenery similar to that in Japan.

Photo 2

Photo 1

Appearance of HKE building

Snow at the end of 2018

Jingzhou City occupies an area of 14,067 square
kilometers. Spreading along the meandering Yangtze
River, the entire city is rich in water with a network ofdistributary channels, waterways, and lakes. Many
beaches and parks located along the Yangtze River areoccupied by families and couples enjoying holidays. With
this geographical advantage, Jingzhou City is an
important site of maritime transportation and physical― 32 ―KAYABA TECHNICAL REVIEW No. 65 OCT. 2022

distribution in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.
Historically, the city is famous for its strategicallyimportant location as seen in the Romance of the Three
Kingdoms. A gigantic statue of Guan Yu (total height of58 meters), who was a bold military general assigned togovern Jingzhou, had previously existed as a symbol ofthe city. Unfortunately, it became evident just before myrepatriation that the statue was an unlawful construction
and it has now already been demolished. (I heard that
there was a plan to relocate the statue, but no relocation
work seems to have been carried out at this moment).

Photo 3Now-lost world’s largest statue of Guan Yu

3. Working in HKE
As mentioned above, my duties during the stay inJingzhou City were to kick off the cost planning operation
for the first time for the Henglong Group and to proliferate
the visualization and standardization of cost issues, inorder to achieve a suitable product cost and EPS businessprofitability. However, it was quite difficult for me to get
the Chinese staff to understand the operation as it was
their first job of this kind. I prepared a cost planning
manual and related documents on the operation inPowerPoint and translated the text into Chinese. After
distributing the documents and holding seminars, I
received my first request from the staff. They asked me todo a job, saying "we want to buy some curtains for theoffice, please do a cost assessment".
While I encountered various "difficult-to-understand"events like this, I built a friendship with my Chinese

Photo 4

Shore of Yangtze River with many families
enjoying a holiday

colleagues through monthly dinners and birthday parties
within the department. Meanwhile, the project gradually
got on track, enabling us to carry out cost reduction
activities and build a collaborative relationship withrelated departments in a manner similar to how we did inJapan. Then, worrying news came as we approached theend of 2019.

4. Terrible Shock
There were rumors that a new type of pneumonia had
emerged in a seafood market in Wuhan City, which isnear Jingzhou City. This was the later-named COVID-19
as I mentioned above.
The seafood market deals with not only seafood but
also all kinds of foodstuffs. I even heard a Chinese saying
expressing the richness of the food culture that “we eat
everything with four legs except tables and everythingthat flies except airplanes”. It is regular practice to eventreat some wild animals as food, many of which may lookunacceptable to the Japanese. Since COVID-19 was said
to originate in such wild animals, Chinese people aroundme were rather optimistic at the beginning. When I
visited a local supplier, people there said "it is OK because
the seafood market has been closed" or "COVID-19 does
not involve human-to-human transmission". Television
news generally reported similar stories. While I waswondering if things were really so positive, I never everimagined at that time that such a terrible situation wouldactually occur.
The first time COVID-19 affected me was during theChinese New Year holidays. Based on the lunar calendar,
the Chinese New Year vacation in 2020 began on January
23, which was earlier than most years. During thevacation, I tried to temporarily go back to Japan andfound a dramatic change in circumstances. All flights
scheduled to arrive at Wuhan Airport were reportedly
going to be canceled in the morning of the day I went tothe airport. Among the Japanese expatriates, half weresupposed to fly back to Japan on another flight the next
day for the sake of air ticket arrangement. We were very
anxious whether the flight would take off as scheduled. Inthe end, the flight on the next day was the last one toJapan before Wuhan Airport was fully closed. All theexpatriates in HKE successfully returned to Japan safely.
Unfortunately, many expatriates of Japan -based
corporations were left out in Wuhan. The news that they
were eventually transported to Japan by a governmentchartered flight is still fresh in my memory.
Although we managed to come back home safely, wecould not return to China even after the lunar New Yearvacation was over due to the large-scale city lockdown by
the Chinese government. In the end, we continued
working online with China for eight months altogether.
In addition to the time-zone difference of one hour
between Japan and China, which might not be so large,
there is a language barrier. Under these circumstances,― 33 ―

Essay from Expatriate at HKE

doing remote work without face-to-face communication
unfortunately affected the human relationship between
us that had been built with our relentless efforts. This is a
sad memory.
After an eight-month stay in Japan, I was finallypermitted to return to China. Still, the immigration
restriction, which persists even now, was very strict.
Firstly, we were required to take a PCR test at the airport
when we arrived to prove we were negative for COVID-19.
We were quarantined in a hotel room near the airport for
two weeks. We were required to take two further PCR
tests during the quarantine period. Then, we went back to
Jingzhou and took another PCR test. After returning tothe apartment that we lived in, we had to quarantine foranother two weeks. Upon completion of the quarantine,
we had to take yet another PCR test. By the way, I had
had a PCR test before I left Japan to begin with. That was
six PCR tests in one month, which were needed for me toenter China. The Chinese government raised their guard
against foreigners coming in from abroad, while those
who had never taken a PCR test at all were still walking
around in the city as usual. I could not help thinking who
was the more dangerous.

sightseeing venue or amusement spot. Still, the gigantic,
overwhelming structure in the land was so impactful thatit moved me a lot when I saw it with my own eyes. That
was a wonderful experience for me. Because it isrecognized throughout the world, I intentionally visitedthe Great Wall on a day outside the busy period, but thesite was still so crowded that I found an area around a
hilltop along the course of the Wall fully covered bypeople and could not see the architecture.

Photo 6

Photo 5Wuhan Airport where I arrived in September 2020

5. Living in China
I'm afraid I have told a somewhat cheerless story
overall, so I would now like to tell you a little bit happierstory for those who will be future expatriates. The word
"China" may first remind you of historical culture andcuisine. For your information, the Japanese often say that
China has four thousand years of history, but I have heardthat the Chinese prefer to say that China has five thousand
years of history. When you talk about history with
Chinese people, be careful not to say, "four thousand
years of history", which may cause them to doubt thisphrase.
Unfortunately, I had little chance of enjoying travelling
during my assignment in China due to COVID-19. Before
the COVID-19 pandemic, I had the opportunity ofvisiting the Great Wall, which may be the first thing thatcomes to mind for the Japanese when talking about
famous historic buildings in China. As is usual for othersimilar buildings or great natural sites throughout theworld, the Great Wall also has been arranged as a typical

The Great Wall crowded with visitors

Speaking of food, Jingzhou cuisine includes many
spicy dishes partly because of its closeness to Sichuan
Province and Chongqing. People who like spicy food canenjoy many varieties of local delicious cuisine. I actually
got hooked on pork intestine (or "fei chang" in Chinese).
This so-called "hormone" in Japan can be eaten in China
in various ways including as a pot dish and ramen. Friedfei chang with a good amount of hot red pepper wasparticularly marvelous. I loved its spicy taste and texture
that perfectly matched the rather weak Chinese beer of
low alcohol content. I frequently used to go to one goodrestaurant even alone after it had been introduced to me.
With many other family customers in the restaurant, aJapanese who could hardly speak Chinese had taken thetrouble to come there alone to eat typical local food. I― 34 ―Photo 7

Fried fei chang

KAYABA TECHNICAL REVIEW No. 65 OCT. 2022

wonder if I looked rather strange to the other customers.
Even among the Chinese, some like fei chang but someothers do not because of its unique taste. Those who likeit sometimes asked me to go out to enjoy fei chang
together as we developed a sense of collegiality. That
made me recognize that Chinese culture values eating
more than is the case in Japan.

6. Farewell
Bearing in mind that I would appoint a Chinese
employee to be my successor, I selected and trained local
employees after becoming an expatriate in HKE. Today,
one of my subordinates at the time has taken over myactivities. My colleagues with whom I became goodfriends still keep in touch with me in public and private
life. I consider it a lifelong achievement for me to haveestablished these relationships.
After much joy and hardship, I was directed by thecompany to repatriate in January 2022 after the first termof the HKE joint-venture contract was to finish. I regretted
that there were still many things I had not yet done, butHKE successfully ended the fiscal year 2021 in the black
for the first time since its foundation, which was amilestone for me before returning home. It was very
emotional for me to be able to say a joyous goodbye to thecolleagues with whom I had earlier struggled.

Photo 8

7. In Closing
Among my Japanese colleagues who were sent to HKE
together in 2018, some are still working hard there even
without a temporary return to Japan under the Chinese
government’s zero-corona policy with no end in sight.
Because of its geography, Jingzhou is an inland center for
peripheral ethnic minorities and seldom accessed byJapanese, so they are working and living in a very
different environment and having to deal with stress.
They are making efforts to develop profitable products byputting the EPS business on track under this stress.
Hoping that they will be able to proudly return to Japanin the near future, I would like to close this report.
Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to
those who extended support and cooperation to me during
my assignment in HKE and sincerely hope that HKE and
its EPS business will further develop in future.

My colleagues at HKE Finance/Cost Planningwith whom I workedAuthor 
HATTORI Koji
Joined the company in 1989.
Expatriate in KYB Asia Pacific Corp.
Ltd.
Took present post after working inSteering Design Dept., expatriate in
the U.S. (Detroit), working in
Product Planning Dept., working in
PS Cost Planning Dept., and as an
expatriate in China (HKE).

― 35 ―