One of my pet peeves are jdoramas is about how when someone is good at their job and the rest of their organisation isn't, that person is often subject to ridicule and their achievements never recognised. I just read this article on BBC called 'Why you don't give praise in Japan' which claims that this type of stuff is the norm in Japan.
The article claims that:
1) You can't tell anyone higher than you in the organisation that they are doing it wrong or that you are right even when you are right.
2) Anyone who is elevated/praised in front of his/her colleagues is seen as a maverick and not to be trusted. Promotion is rather based on relationships and doing what your boss says rather than achieving results.
This explains the constantly angry bosses in jdoramas and incompetent organisations but it just doesn't make sense in real life. If all that stuff in jdoramas is closer to real life than I thought, then being unable to take a holiday longer than a week is not the scariest thing about Japanese worklife.
And what's the deal with the air-headed rookies in Jdramas who keep making mistake, being rude but are always forgiven? I'm looking at Aya Ueto in Attention Please, the clumsy detective in Stone's Cocoon, that Yuto Jonny in Hope and many more. Hard to believe that they'd even get a part-time job in real life.
ReplyDeleteGood question. I think they use it to show character growth but it just makes them and whoever hired/trained them incompetent.Its definitely a very Japanese only thing.
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