Corporate cultures in Japan

The president of the company was constantly spying on all his programmers, and often switched the strategic direction in order to conform to the latest trends that he spotted on Digg. No one was paid more than about USD25k/year, despite having a huge office in Akihabara and backing from a large angel investor in Korea. (There was no business equity or anything like that for the workers, and no housing assistance either)

That isn't really a big deal; just another failing IT company with no direction. However, the "Japanese Charisma Kei" twist is that 25% of the company gross was given to a fundamentalist church the president belonged to, and that he continuously recruited people to join his cult. My gf, who I met there, had joined and subsequently left that church because she thought they were insane. The President let church members come to the office and hassle her about going back to that church without remorse. (She eventually left the company to work at a bank.)

All of this changed when I joined the company, mainly because they had a new director that was appointed by the angel investor. I can't say it changed much for the better. You see, the director believed he was receiving direct communications from aliens about zero-point energy and that it was his mission to create a new civilization based on that knowledge. He also refused to take baths (he used a peroxide solution to wipe his body with instead). As far as employees went, he frowned on the use of doctors (preferring instead to tell them to learn the secrets of "Ki healing").

I stopped working with them after 6 months. I have never regretted it.

(As an aside, I don't have any problem with people's personal religious beliefs or the fervor with which they practice it; it was the personality cult and the organized harassment in a place of business that was completely bizarre and far beyond anything I have ever encountered in Canada or the US)

-edited for terrible grammar. Ugh.

I also previously worked at Fujitsu's mobile division and can attest to that.

They still have an entire floor dedicated to developing for Symbian. Their main translator is hamstrung by rules that indicate they must re-use old (incorrect) translations so that there is no loss in "language continuity" between phones.

It isn't the fault of my immediate superiors there; both were open, intelligent and hard-working. It is middle and upper middle management. They are relics from the bubble era ( subject to less stringent entry conditions) and were promoted 3 or 4 levels above their competence. The fact is, their underlings are of significantly higher quality. (My superior was one person picked out of 500; as opposed to her superior, who was chosen out of a group of 5 or 6)

Fujitsu's previous president was thrown out of the company on trumped-up charges about being aligned with the Yakuza (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8606515.stm). Why? Because he tried to spin off parts of the company that had been losing money for years.

I loved my coworkers there and part of me wishes I could be working with them today. Unfortunately, they won't adapt until an entire generation is in their grave.

It is atypical for a certain segment of Japanese companies. Its a big country, with all kinds of folks in it, much like America. I get worried when folks assume that the stereotypical salaryman life is universal in Japan -- compare it to Japanese people assuming that all American companies are like Google. (Incidentally, I have met people with that misconception.)

Anecdotally, my previous employers were solidly within the ambit of a corporation on the top left of that chart, and managers were instructed to (and to my experience generally did) address employees "consistent with professional etiquette and the traditional expectations of polite society."

As far as Soka Gakkai goes; maybe you can educate me more about them, but they seem to be hated by the Uyoku (so they can't be all that bad). The real insane religious cult in Japan right now is "Happiness Science"; Kofuku Jitsugento feels much scarier than Komeito.