Like other foreign satellite offices of Japanese companies, non-Japanese persons are rarely integrated fully into the formal chain of command, while managers of Japanese nationality can routinely and exogenously assign tasks to any non-Japanese person in any department. The Japanese nationals eat lunch together (no non-Japanese invited) sometimes order dinner brought in if working late (non-Japanese are left to fend for themselves) and one manager even had his translator/secretary pretend to be his wife while making medical appointments for his own children. Mid- to upper-level Japanese managers tend to arrive at or after 9am and stay well past 6pm, but outside of overseas conference calls, everything after about 5:30pm is social face-time, surfing Facebook, etc. This is imported directly from 'salarymen' culture in Japan, where the office is air-conditioned, the OLs are there to be cute, and a man can read the sports page with his 'buds' while the battle-axe is back home in a tiny, stuffy 2LDK with the kids. If you work for non-Japanese management, you can expect reasonably modern, progressive, and effective styles, and opportunities to grow in your career. If you are a non-Japanese working for a Japanese manager there, expect authoritarian hell: no respect for your own family issues, you may get written up for asking or giving advice outside you department, no career growth; it's the old 60s style 'Theory X' plus some real old-school scientific management - they even make salaried non-exempt professionals sign time sheets...
