This is Alastair from the Communication Design division. It’s been a while since we’ve written in English on this blog, and as for myself, it’s been nearly four years since I’ve had a chance to do so! How is everybody? I hope you’re all doing well despite the global situation. Recently, my team has been getting used to working from home, but whilst doing so we’ve also been brushing up on our business skills with a book titled “あたりまえだけどなかなかできない仕事のルール” (quick translation: “Obvious Yet Difficult: Rules for Work”), authored by Hamaguchi Naota. It’s a popular style of business book: easily digestible nuggets of wisdom, each taking up one spread. Last week’s theme was “約束の時間より 5 分早く行こう” (“Arrive 5 minutes earlier than promised”). We found that within our own company, attitudes to time differ, with some people considering 10 minutes to be better, and others who see no problem with arriving just on time. I’ve also heard of some particularly strict companies at which employees are expected to arrive 30 minutes before any scheduled meeting! If attitudes differ within a culture, are there also larger trends between cultures? As a multi-cultural office we’re certainly interested in finding out! Chronemics is the study of time’s role in communication. It is concerned with how people orient themselves around, understand and organize themselves around time, which affect personal differences in our perception of time and result in difference of communication regarding time. In my personal experience, the majority of Japanese people I’ve met have been […]