Why Japanese Staff Refuse Leadership Positions   It is an irony. In the West ambitious people have the elbows out to bundle you out of their way.  They are scheming and plotting to get the next promotion.  They exaggerate their qualifications, experience, talent and capability at every turn, if they think it will serve to see them step up over the bodies of their rivals.  They fake it now hoping they can make it later.  They suck up to those above and criticize those below.  Their peers are seen as the enemy who must be vanquished if they are to prevail.  In the Game Of Thrones and in the Game of Promotion “you win the game or you die” is the prevailing philosophy.  In Japan, when staff are recognized for their good work and given the chance to move up often they refuse.  They say things like, “it is too early”, “I am not ready yet”, “maybe in two years time”. This drives Western leaders here nuts.   Why are these Japanese staff so bashful and unmotivated?  The speed of promotion is fast in Western companies.  Age isn’t thought as important as capability.  Seniority however is a big deal in Japan.  Younger staff are reluctant to make a suggestion in meetings, if those around them are older or higher in rank.  The possibility of having to manage staff who are older when promoted than them sends shivers down their spines.  Culturally, this is extremely awkward.  It is awkward in the West too, but we are all locked in a Darwinian struggle to get to the top, so everyone just has to suck it up and get on with it.  If you don’t like it, there is the door, goodbye and good luck.   “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down” is traditional wisdom in Japan, so everyone is very adept from childhood at not sticking out.  You get along, by going on. Getting a promotion over your peers is bound to cause aggravation with those passed over.  Spite, backbiting, nasty comments, vicious rumors are all part and parcel of the employ landscape.  Getting a higher salary and higher status doesn’t fix this issue.    Japan has solved this problem by promoting everyone together based on when they joined the firm.  Your patron promotes you and you become a loyal follower.  They are there to protect you as you climb the ranks.  Only in the top layers are the wheat sifted from the chaff and age and seniority dimensions break down.    In Western firms, it is meritocracy based, so synchronicity is irrelevant.  Nobody cares who entered the company when or how old anyone is. The firm wants the outputs and therefore they want the best people in charge of producing those results.  In Japan your Western boss is not reliable. Your patron who promoted you is just as likely to leave town and head off to sunny shores elsewhere to their next assignment and your have no air cover internally anymore.   There is also the nasty issue of accountability and responsibility.  If you are promoted you have to be judged by your results.  In Japan, because of group decision making no one steals the glory, as it is shared around.  Likewise, when things go pear shaped and scapegoats are sought, they can’t be found because everyone was a party to the decision, so no one is individually responsible.  “We are all responsible, so no one is responsible”.  What a perfect system!  There is zero protection in a Western firm.  If you fail, you are expected to fall on your sword and disappear.  In the West, the mobility of the job market is such that you can dust off the beating and live again to fight another day.  Japan has not been like that because of its postwar lifetime employment system.  Getting removed is a serious blow to one’s career prospects, so caution at all time is the watch word.   Better to forego that promotion until all the risks have been contained.  The support groups internally need to be lit up, the consensus arrived at and the opposition reconciled. None of this fits into the firm’s calendar of leadership development though.  The big bosses back at HQ ask why you