KYB技報第51号

2015―10

随筆
Discovering the Land of the Rising Sun
日出づる国での発見
Christian Scholz
クリスティアン ショルツ

Berlin I was faced with the question: “What’s１ ．Background“What are your thoughts on working in Japanfor two years?” This question in 2013 altered mynext?”.
Surprisingly, I got an exciting and interesting
job offer from KYB. After a short discussion withfamily’s life and took us in a direction that we had
not considered before.
First of all, I would like to introduce myself,
before telling you about my experience of living inJapan and working at KYB. My name is Christian
Scholz and I came to Japan with my wife Janettand our two daughters, four and two years old,respectively. I started my professional carrier at
the Federal Institute for Materials Research andTesting（BAM）in Berlin by writing my doctoral
thesis（PhD）in the field of tribology in 2009. I
gathered my first experience in Japan during a
one-week stay in Hiroshima for a conference.
There I met Nakase-san from KYB’s BasicTechnology R&D Center for the first time. Shortly
after this visit, Nakase-san and I became

my wife and our families and much longer
discussions between KYB human resourcesdepartment and me, it was decided that we would
start a two-year adventure in Japan in 2014. Oneof the things we did first was to buy several books
about Japanese culture and tradition and someguides for living in Japan. Many of the situations
described in these books sounded very curious,
funny and in some ways unbelievable in ourGerman minds. We started learning Japanese andhad a lot of questions which were always kindly
answered by Nakase-san and his wife. Still, there
were many more things to do in preparing thisnew experience, including moving and storing ourbelongings in Germany, finding accommodation in
Japan and many small but time consuming andcolleagues（see Photo 1）at the BAM and over the
３ years he stayed in Berlin also friends. At thenerve-wracking matters. Luckily, we found a nicehouse in Yokohama, which I was able to look at

end of my temporary employment contract inwhen KYB invited me for a look-and-see-trip andfinal discussion of my contract in November 2013.
This was just one of the many helpful things mynew company did for us as we prepared for thebig move. As we recognized that many families
with a German background live in Yokohama, wehad fewer worries about moving to a country
which is so different from Germany and whose
language we do not understand.
Finally we were ready for take-off and on
March 16th, 2014 we started our adventure in the
Far East, approximately 9,000 km away from ourPhoto 1

 r. Takuya Nakase（right）and me as colD
leagues at BAM.

home country. After a long flight we arrived at
Tokyo Haneda and received an unbelievably― 79 ―

Discovering the Land of the Rising Sun 日出づる国での発見

warm welcome by my new colleagues and thefirst Omiyage （Japanese souvenir） for ourdaughters and us. Directly after arrival at ourhotel, despite being overtired, I went directly to afurniture retailer together with my new bosses tobuy and arrange the delivery of furniture for ournew house. It took a week to finish all of thebureaucratic matters, including getting a Japanese
Hanko（official name seal）, which is necessary toproceed the registration at the citizen’s bureau,
opening a bank account and getting mobile phonecontracts. We were ready to move into our newhouse. Thanks to the support from KYB, my newcolleagues and some expats, Japan started feeling,
very quickly, a little like home.

２ ．Living in Yokohama
Our new home is just a 10 minutes ride by
subway away from the Shinkansen station ShinYokohama and very close to the German School
Tokyo Yokohama, the center of the German
community, located. We decided to send our older
daughter to the kindergarten of the German
School and our younger daughter to a Hoikuen（Japanese kindergarten）. We hope that by doing
this she will understand and speak Japanese muchbetter than my wife and I. We have already seen
great progress from her and sometimes she evenstarts little conversations with natives.
Before coming to Japan we made it a priority to
see and experience as much as we can during our634 meters it is the tallest tower in the world.
Whenever walking through the streets of
Yokohama, Tokyo or elsewhere in Japan as aforeigner with two blonde girls you will
experience the very curios “Kawaii-phenomenon”.
“Kawaii” means “lovely”, “cute” or “adorable” andseems to have an important position in Japaneseculture. Especially Japanese women love cutethings such as smartphone or bag pendants fromfamous cartoon, anime or other Manga characters.
Walking through Tokyo with our children we canhear this word many times a day. Of course it
makes us proud to hear such compliments for ourdaughters, but it is sometimes a little bit too muchfor children. That being said, we have also started
integrating this word into our German
conversations.
It is quite hard to describe what kind of things
represent Japan best, but one of these manythings contributing to our image of a fascinating
and manifold society is Japanese food. When I askstay. We use the time on weekend or during theJapanese holidays of “Golden Week” （end ofApril）, “Obon”（mid of August）and the first weekof the year to discover many places（Photo 2）. Not
far from our home there are two idyllic places andone of my favorite regions in Japan: Kamakura
and Enoshima. Approximately 800 years ago
Kamakura was the political and religious center ofJapan and you can still see signs of this period
when entering the Hachimangu shrine or looking
at the Great Buddha statue, Daibutsu. Directly onSagami Bay we can enjoy the beach and its manysurfers and sailing boats as well as delicious, freshsea food - a contrast to the mega city Tokyo withmillions of people, shops and skyscrapers. You can
get a spectacular image of Tokyo from the TokyoSkytree®, located in Sumida-ku. With a heights ofPhoto 2― 80 ―

 iscovering Japan in Himeji, Kamakura,
DKanazawa, Miyajima, Hakone, Kyoto andNikko.

KYB技報第51号

my colleagues what sightseeing spots are famousfor Kyoto, Takayama or elsewhere they always
give me some nice suggestions highlighting local
food or drink specialties. You can find travel
guides for each region in Japan where only
restaurants are described. Once listed in suchguides or named in a culinary TV-show mostrestaurants are fully booked for several months inadvance or people are willing to wait for twohours in the front entrance to get a table and try
food advertised. Of course, sometimes we do thesame. We learned much about Japanese food andreally appreciate it as one big part of Japan. Goingback to Germany we will miss dishes such as
ramen （noodle soup）, okonomi-yaki （savorypancake）, yakitori（skewered grilled chicken）and
not to forget sushi and sashimi, to list only a partof countless types of delicious and super freshJapanese food.
Whenever someone travels in Japan, whether
privately or for business reasons, one thing should
not be forgotten before returning: buying omiyage.
Omiyage is kind of souvenir, but with a different
meaning compared to Western souvenirs.
Souvenirs in Europe or America are things a
traveler buys for him- or herself to remember thetrip, such as key rings, clothes or other things. Incontrast, Japanese omiyage typically consist offood produced in the area the trip was taken to.
Biscuits, chocolate, mochi（rice cake）or anything
you can pack separately into beautifully designed
boxes are suitable as omiyage. Normally you canbuy these boxes everywhere, but especially in
Shinkansen stations（Photo 3）. Omiyage is notintended to be consumed by oneself, but rather asa present for colleagues or friends. From my point

2015―10of view, this is a tradition which should be adoptedin Germany as well.

３ ．Working at KYB Basic Technology R&D Center
Currently I am working in the Materials
Engineering Section at the Basic Technology R&D
Center of KYB in Sagamihara. Every morning
after arriving at the office I go to the locker roomand change into a white outfit, just like all otheremployees. This consists of a white shirt, white
trousers and white safety shoes for the office（black safety shoes for testing and production
areas at the plant）. The first days after entering
KYB this was really strange for me, but now it isbusiness as usual. Work starts every day at 8：00
a.m. with a special daily routine at the office: musicis turned on and everyone in the office starts astretching routine for ５ minutes, after which
there is an audio signaling the start of the official
working time. Lunch time from 12：00 p.m. to 12：
45 p.m. begins and ends with an audio signal aswell. Before everyone starts his work again, a 10
minute meeting in each section is held in which
the group members are reminded to take care of
their health during working time, a shortstatement in English what everyone is doing forthe day and some official notices by thesupervisor. Officially the working day ends at 4：50
p.m., but usually most people work until 6：00, 7：00
p.m. or in urgent cases longer.
In my section there are 20 or so members
working on different R&D projects all related tomaterials science, analysis and testing inside ofKYB. My tasks are mainly related to automotive
shock absorber development. I do a lot of technicalresearch on environmentally friendly oils for shock
absorbers and hydraulic components. In particular, I already learned many things about thedevelopment process of shock absorbers. This
process includes many material tests and analysis,
shock absorber evaluation by using a servohydraulic bench tester and also vehicle tests
under real road conditions. Fortunately, mycolleague Ito-san and I have twice had theopportunity to visit the KYB Suspensions Europe
plant located in Ororbia, Spain for shock absorber

Photo 3Omiyage products at Kanazawa station.

oil evaluation tests（see Photo 4）.
During this time we were kindly supported by― 81 ―

Discovering the Land of the Rising Sun 日出づる国での発見

Photo 4

Photo 5

 ehicle tests at KYB Suspensions EuVrope S.A. in Ororbia/Spain.

Young Engineers Nomikai in Sagamiono.

the Japanese staff sent from Japan to work in
Spain and of course by the Spanish staff, especiallychanges happen in the department, it is time for aJapanese “nomikai”. The word nomikai stands fora typical Japanese business tradition and means

Fernando de la Cal, Víctor Bariain and AlexAlonso. We drove several kilometers per day to
get an impression how the shock absorber oil can
influence passenger comfort and driving stabilityof the car. It was a great experience for me to see
how good the staff of KYB Japan and Spain canwork together and to understand the different
requirements of the Japanese and the European
car markets.
Working in Japan is in some ways reallydifferent from working in Germany. In myexperience, it seems that it is important forJapanese employees to have many meetings a day
as well as technical pre-reviews and reviews.
Especially technical pre-reviews held by technicalafter work drinking party. Mainly around train
stations you can find many different types ofcasual restaurants suitable as a nomikai location.
Normally the first nomikai（a nomikai evening
often consists of more than one drinking party）isheld in an izakaya（drinking establishment thatserves food beside of drinks）, yakiniku（grilledmeat）or seafood shop, where you can enjoy a lotof delicious food and for sure a lot of drinks（Photo 5）.
One curios example of Japanese food you can
get in yakiniku restaurants is nankotsu or “softbone”, consisting mainly of animal cartilage. Before
coming to Japan I said, that I will try every food I
get served during a nomikai even if it looks a little

staff and their line managers, which often end indiscussions about presentation slides that werealready discussed several times before. Apartfrom the fact that I rarely understand discussions

strange... I have thus far. The second nomikai
primarily consists of drinking and some small
snacks or Japanese noodle soup such as ramen.
Sometimes the final location of these evenings is ain Japanese, I was always wondering why they
are discussing the same content numerous times. I

karaoke bar. The nomikai ends just in time for thelast train back home. During events after work

think this may be the way of Japanese business.
This is similar to formal business meetings
between companies, where it often takes several
meetings to discuss everything, plan a cooperation

the topics of conversations change from businessmatters to more private ones and you can learn a
lot about what the Japanese do in their spare timeor on weekends.

in detail, clarify where necessary and develop acohesive plan before starting work on any given

４ ．Japan compared to Germany

project. Sure this takes a lot of time, but in theend the cooperation works-unless unforeseen
difficulties arise and the discussions have to startagain.
After a long meeting, intensive working day, forspecial events, if a new colleague joins KYB or big

Comparing Berlin, Germany’s largest city withalmost 3.5 million inhabitants on 900 km2, with
Tokyo, and its nearly 10 million inhabitants on 600
km2, the first big difference becomes visible very
fast: less space and three times as many people
than in Berlin（not taking the other 30 million― 82 ―

KYB技報第51号

2015―10inhabitants of the metropolitan area including
Yokohama into account）. One question suddenly

visible eve-rywhere in Japanese culture. Even
when dealing with public transport, there arecomes into my mind: “How do millions of people
go to work every morning without a total collapseof the city?”. It works, and it works much better

many people in each station helping you with all
problems which might occur. They take care of
the passenger’s safety on the platform andthan in many European metropolises. Trains,subways and even buses are in most cases ontime, and on time means punctual to the minute.

organize the flow of people during rush hour by
instruc-tions via megaphone.
Sure there are many things in Germany we

In my first year of living in Japan only once have
I had a train in the morning be canceled on mydaily commute and the next train arrived ６
minutes later. I cannot count how many trains

miss a lot besides family and friends. German beer
is one example, having a higher variety of tastes
compared the leading Japanese brands of thethree largest breweries. Also watching andwere delayed or canceled when I worked in
Berlin, but it is not possible to compare it withenjoying German football. Moreover the different
opinion of work-life balance is sometimes difficult

Japan. This becomes even more apparent when
you look at the time table of the Japanese bullet
trains, the Shinkansen （high-speed train）.
Departing nearly every 15 minutes you can trust

for us. While Germans take their holidays to relax,regenerate（get new ideas for the job）or spend
time with family and friends, the Japanese seemto be always worried about taking days off andthat you reach your destination at an average
speed of 250 km/h on time, even if it is 1100 kmaway （Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen operating
between Tokyo and Hakata）, which is an amazing
feeling. Operating with nearly no delay within aday, these trains are very reliable. That is why
many people use these trains for business andprivate reasons, even if the ticket price isrelatively high and no discounts are available. You
can only dream of punctuality like this when you
use the high speed train, the ICE, in Germany.
When we arrived in Japan, we recognized one
thing which is, in a very positive way, completely
different to Germany, the service in shops.
Whenever you enter a shop all shop clerks start

missing a day at work.

to say “Irasshaimase” often with very amusing
voices. “How can I help you?” is not just an empty
phrase. The entire staff does everything for you ina shop to make you feel comfortable and to guarantee you the best service. “Always helpful, kindand smiling” is the philosophy of Japanese clerks.
When paying for your items the cashier always
makes sure to give you enough plastic bags fortransportation to get them back home safely, even

５ ．Future plans?!
We have now been living in Yokohama for one
and a half years and not much time is left.
Summarizing our stay here, we would definitely
say that it was a very good decision to come toJapan. Getting in touch with a culture so far awayand different from Germany was and still is a great
experience. There are so many things left to see,discover and taste that the time will run out andthe end of our stay will come too soon. Of coursein the future Japan will be still a part of our life - atime and place we like to remember with many
exciting memories. I would like to thank all
members of the Materials Engineering Section for
their help and understanding that it sometimes
took a little time to understand how things workin Japan. This applies in particular to Kato-san,Kobayashi-san, Tamura-san, Nakase-san and Ito-san
who have always supported my research work.
Otsukaresama deshita, お疲れ様でした! I alreadylearned a lot about the things described above andif you bought only a chocolate bar. The plasticbags may have one more practical use. Since
public garbage bins are very rare, you can use

I am very happy about this experience.
What we do in future is not yet certain. Our
plan is to improve our Japanese language skills
more and go back to Germany when my contract

them to take your trash back home and keep thestreets clean. This attitude of high service isends next year. I really hope that there will be apossibility to continue my work with KYB.

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Discovering the Land of the Rising Sun 日出づる国での発見

著者 クリスティアン

ショルツ

2014年入社．技術本部基盤技術研
究 所 材 料 研究室．博 士（工学）．
ショックアブソーバ用材料（主に環境対応型作動油）の研究開発に従事．

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