Japanese enterprise culture [7]

Last Sunday I read a book "艾蜜莉的日本求生記". It's author, Amelie Nothomb, is a Belgian female writer who was born in Japan and lived there in her childhood. She believed that she must have been a Japanese and her dream was to work for a Japan enterprise. She was so excited that her dream finally came true in Tokyo.

Nevertheless, the first day she came to the company she found that everything was beyond her expectation. In Japan, the status of woman is very low not to mention the fact that Amelie is a "foreign woman". Japanese women are supposed to obey men. Besides, the boss are usually men. Women have little chances to be promoted.

Therefore, in her workplace Amelie had no friends. The only female was her boss. She was afraid that Amelie might be promoted so she always picked on Amelie. She tried to humiliate Amelie by hook or crook. Amelie thought she was employed as an interpreter but her boss didn't give her any work to do. Finally, she was sent to serve the tea to guests, but she got into trouble because she could speak Japanese so well! The clients was not comfortable for there was a foreigner who could understand them. After that, Amelie was forbidden to speak and understand Japanese.

Amelie thought everything was ridiculous but she didn't escape. Her last work in that company was cleaning the restroom. She always worked optimistically. When her contract expired, she quited the job and went back to Belgium. Now she is a writer and awarded.

Through this book, we can see Japanese culture of enterprise, so ridiculous but also so aspiring. Still, I appreciate that I am not a Japanese girl. I may love Japanese culture very much. I mean their food, their scenery, their concept of environmental protection and so on. But I don't want to be a Japanese. As a woman, life in Japan is so hard. Men and women are still not equivalent seriously even today.