The term is crude, and nobody uses it to someone's face. It describes a recognisable profile: a professional whose English is strikingly good and whose functional depth is thin. They interview brilliantly in the language headquarters speaks, are at ease in global town halls, and make visiting executives feel at home. They are often, quietly, not very good at the job itself.
The profile exists for a structural reason. In Japan, business English is rare enough to become a career in its own right. A professional who invests heavily in English often does so at the cost of the deep domain experience built up in Japanese-speaking workplaces. That is a trade-off the market imposes, not a character flaw.
People with this profile have real uses. As bridges between Tokyo and headquarters, liaison managers, communications leads and interpreters of context, they can be invaluable. The problem starts when they are hired to run a sales team, a supply chain or an engineering function because their English made them the easiest candidate for the regional panel to assess.
The professional who can do the functional work and operate fluently in English does exist. They are also expensive, heavily recruited and usually already somewhere they like.
What it means for a foreign employer
- Assess the function in Japanese. Put a Japanese-speaking interviewer with domain expertise on the panel, and take at least one reference in Japanese from someone who has seen the candidate's work.
- Do not let headquarters' comfort decide. The candidate who is easiest for regional leaders to talk to is not necessarily the one the Japan team will follow.
- Ask whether English is really critical. If the people who can deliver the outcome mostly work in Japanese, consider a strong Japanese-speaking operator with a bilingual deputy rather than paying the bilingual premium for fluency alone.
- Use the profile where it fits. If the role's main job is liaison between Japan and headquarters, strong English and cultural fluency may be exactly right.
Sources
- Colloquial usage; the author's book discusses the profile and its hiring risk.