Learning from the Japanese experience
A consultant emergency physician shares his experiences of Japanese culture while attending a fellowship training programme
I TRAVELLED to Japan as part of my fellowship training programme in Emergency Medicine Critical Care.
This is a subspecialty programme (further advanced training for specialists) that runs for two years. I have completed all my training in Malaysia and this three-month tenure in Japan is the last part of the programme.
In this programme, I am posted to Kurashiki, Japan for one month and then to Osaka for two months until the middle of January.
I am a consultant emergency physician at Hospital Kuala Lumpur. I am in Kurashiki to learn about the medical practice as well as the Japanese culture and work ethics.
Malaysia has the “Look East Policy” introduced by our Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad many years ago. Since then, many Malaysian students have been sent to study in Japan.
Three months before I came, I took a Japanese language class, learning the language for two hours every weekend. I can speak very basic Japanese. At least, I can ask the way to my destination.
Upon arrival at Kurashiki station, I was looking for the way to Kurashiki Global Hotel and I asked a young Japanese man who was about to take his parked bicycle.
He bowed politely and asked me to follow him to a nearby information centre, leaving his bicycle. The lady working there explained how to get to the place and gave me a map. When I walked out and looked at the map, a passerby saw me and showed me where it was.
I was very touched and amazed at how helpful the Japanese are. For example, I saw train officers bow carefully before closing the door after they finished checking tickets.
On my way to the hotel, I saw rows of bicycles at the railway station parked in symmetrical positions. The streets are clean and the small canals and rivers have no rubbish and sometimes, I can spot fish in them. It’s like you are on a different planet here!
The next morning, Dr Tetsunori Ikegami, who is the Consultant and Head of Kurashiki Central Hospital’s Emergeny and Critical Care Department came to my hotel at 9am sharp. He was very concerned and wanted to be sure that everything was fine with me. He even asked the hotel where the nearest laundry was and about food that I can eat.
We then walked to Kurashiki Central Hospital and along the way I saw cars all parked in reversed position as if every driver planned to arrange them in that manner.
I asked Dr Ikegami about it but he said it is probably just a habit among Japanese people.
He took me to his department for orientation and introduced me to his staff. My broken Japanese was at work here as I got to know people.
The hospital is almost 100 years old and the Emergency and Critical Care Department is well established. There is an ambulance entrance behind the department with the automatic door going up each time a case comes in.
I notice that the Japanese are very particular about having a place for everything and that for “everything” there is a place. They are very organised.
For many days, I observed all the cases being managed in the emergency department as well as the intensive care unit. The equipment is advanced and up-to-date.
Within the hospital, I saw a beautiful fountain located in an indoor garden surrounded by benches for people to sit. Water drips down slowly into the pond giving you this extremely relaxing feeling. Dr Ikegami told me that fountain was built 95 years ago by the late Ohara Magosuboro, an industrialist who built a hospital around the fountain. Initially, the hospital was built for his workers but it was later opened to the public. I am very inspired by this story as I think the fountain represents good deeds that flow out of it affecting people.
Culture at work
Above all, I am in awe of the work culture here. When each case is referred to other teams for the continuation of management, the on-call doctor will come and after being briefed on the case, will bow down and thank the managing team and then examine the case for admission.
For the following weeks, I joined the group in their ward rounds and case discussions. I was also involved in some of their training. I shared my experience like the hospital evacuation drills and teaching ultrasound to their doctors.
The doctors there also presented cases to me and since I had been here for quite some time, I started to follow their culture in bowing to each other after seeing each case in the intensive care unit.
A staff took a photo of me and the team bowing to each other. I later shared the photo on my Facebook. Some doctors back home read my post. They started to bow to each other after they finished work and put this up on Facebook. I was amused by this and put up a challenge called “Colleague Respect Bow Challenge” and asked my doctor friends on Facebook to bow to each other after finishing their ward rounds to express their respect to their colleagues. They took up the challenge and shared their videos on doing so. I showed this to the Japanese doctors and they are amused by this. I had become one of the “Japanese” from this act of “bowing”.
Lessons from Japanese culture
While I am here, I observe the many wonderful ways of the Japanese people. For example, these included the sense of “order” when parking their cars or bicycles to the sound signals of the traffic lights.
The traffic lights in the city have sounds like “birds singing” signalling that it is green to help the blind to cross the road. Different sounds can be heard if there are multiple crossings at the traffic light.
It is amazing to see everyone following the law with no one crossing the road when lights are red even though there are no cars. I see this as a sign of integrity — to follow the law even when nobody is looking. I also sense a culture of “making things easier” for others as I experienced on my way to Kurashiki with people helping me to find my way. Perhaps this culture of respect and care led them to invent many things that later became commercialised for their usefulness such as vending machines selling not just drinks but also shoes, diapers and milk bottles at the hospital. They become innovative and enterprising along the way.
I was thinking how these become the Japanese way. I believe that the “respect” that the Japanese are reminded of everyday from their “bowing” culture is the root of their good values, resilience, finesse, perfection and success. It reminds me of that old fountain in the hospital. Its water affects others positively. In a tough world, the Japanese show us the way through a beautiful culture of goodwill and finesse.
Like the fountain, I am affected in the same manner by the values and refined culture of the Japanese people.
The writer is a consultant emergency physician who is currently in Japan on a fellowship training programme.