If you have experience making appointments and meeting with Japanese people you possibly wondered why Japanese people came to appointed places so early.
Yes, we Japanese people always are on time for appointments, meetings, and starting something with other Japanese.
To get along with Japanese friends well, not make a negative first impression on your Japanese customer/business partner, or have a successful business relationship with them, you should know how Japanese people think and behave for being on time for appointments.
In this article, I’d like to share the following matters.
- We Japanese are punctual
- When meeting with your friend or boyfriend/girlfriend
- Meeting in a Japanese company
- A job interview or meeting your customer
- Since when did the Japanese start to be punctual
After reading it hopefully, you get to know Japanese people’s punctual thoughts and deal with your friends or business partners well.
Let me introduce about myself.
I am Hiro from Tokyo, Japan, born and raised here.
I have working experience in Japanese companies (logistics and manufacturing) as an international sales for almost 10 years, so I well understand Japanese people’s work practice.
We Japanese are punctual
We, Japanese people, are always punctual when meeting with our friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, and business partners and when we are late even 2 or 3 minutes, there is the possibility we lose credibility from them.
Let me pick the example of trains in Japan. Japanese trains time tables are set by a minute such as 7:43, 7:47, and 7:51 in the morning and always each train comes at those exact times.
If more than 2-3 minutes are late, the train company makes an announcement of apology for the delay to passengers.
It seems really strange if you are not Japanese but that phenomenon is part of our Japanese society.
When meeting with your Japanese friend or boyfriend/girlfriend
When meeting with your Japanese friend or lover, it is highly recommended to arrive at the exact appointed place 1 or 2 minutes before the appointment time.
If you need to delay for more than 2 minutes you should send a text to him/her and tell how much you delay and the reason, and apologize lightly (gomen-ne, a colloquial way of saying sorry).
If you delay the appointment even 2 or 3 minutes without advance notice, we Japanese people think we are regarded as a less important person and our feelings are kind of hurt or you are thought to be careless people.
There is even possibility you get dumped by your boyfriend/girlfriend.
If you are a foreigner to Japanese people you possibly won’t be pointed out much for the delay, but if you often get along with Japanese people, you should possibly understand the Japanese people’s way of thought.
Meeting in a Japanese company
If you belong to a Japanese company or a Japanese-based company, you may be required to be punctual to any kind of appointment if your supervisor or senior is Japanese.
Otherwise, you could get blamed or your value in your company could fall.
Especially if you are a new employee, you possibly should be in the meeting room much earlier than the actual meeting time.
When I first entered a Japanese company after graduation from university, I was taught by my senior to be in the meeting room 5 minutes before the actual meeting started, and if I needed to prepare documents or set a video call I needed to be there 10 minutes before it starts.
Then we could start meeting at the appointment time precisely.
If you really need to be delayed even 1 minute, you must inform delaying time and reason to your supervisor or senior in advance and apologize (depending on the situation).
A job interview or meeting your customer
If you have a job interview in a company in Japan or a Japanese-based company or have a meeting with your Japanese customer you need to be extremely careful about an appointment time.
Interview
You really make a negative impression if you delay an interview in Japan without advance notice and apology and there is no second chance even if you are actually competent for the applying job.
Delaying the interview, you totally make the worst first impressions.
When I had a job interview in Japan I was sometimes at the company 15-30 minutes before and waited at the entrance till the appointment time. I feared the possibility of transportation delays.
If you really needed to delay because, for instance, the last appointment lasted longer than planned, you need to inform immediately to the person in charge of the interviewing company and apologize. Also when you meet the person at the place of interview you firstly need to apologise for the delay again.
I actually did the exact same behavior during my interview and I made a good impression to them and I passed it in the end.
If you sincerely and appropriately inform and apologise for the delay you possibly make a good impression instead
Meeting with your customer
The situation is the same when meeting with your customer.
You possibly cannot receive a new order from them if you delay a meeting without advance notice because delaying itself make you lose credibility from your customer.
Customers’ way of thinking is that if you delay the appointment, your way of dealing with your job is thought to be terrible and they avoid giving new jobs to you.
Thus you must 100% pay attention to appointment time if you have a job interview or meeting with your customer in Japan.
Since when did Japanese people start to be punctual?
Japanese people started to be punctual since the Meiji government (1868-1912) promoted the modernization of Japan making infrastructure such as the Japanese army, schools, factories, and trains. At that time, the concept of time was introduced by western society to chase western countries and increase national power, the government at that time kind of forced Japanese people to be punctual to go to school, work at factories, etc.
Especially punctuality of train was kind of mandatory at that time to avoid any accidents of train because there was the possibility of train collisions if it wasn’t punctual since there was limited communication tool among trains.
Entry to the station was until 15 minutes before departure and the train door was closed 5 minutes before departure and then the train system was managed on time. Surprisingly the culture of 100 years ago punctuality continues today.
Conclusion
In this article, I introduced punctuality in Japanese society and hope you understand Japanese people’s tendencies.
I further hope that you will have a successful relationship with Japanese people by being on time for any appointments with them and informing them you are late and apologizing in case of delay.
Thank you for reading my article till the end.
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