Episode #71: The Most Difficult Part Of Business? People!

Running a business in Japan (日本 — Japan) is hard enough with cash flow, shifting markets, seasonality, and pricing pressure. But what happens when the biggest risk isn’t the economy—it's the people inside your organization? If your staff don’t take accountability, your customer service, productivity, and quality control collapse together.

Because one individual’s mindset shapes outcomes far beyond their salary or role. Engagement and identification with the company drive the quality of customer experience and internal performance.

When employees are committed and self-motivated, they protect the brand. When they are not, they protect themselves first—often at the expense of the business.

Mini-summary: People problems are rarely about cost alone; they’re about attitude, ownership, and engagement.

What does employee disengagement look like in real life?

A personal incident at a long-time barbershop in Azabu Juban (麻布十番 — Azabu-Juban, a Tokyo neighborhood) shows this clearly.

After a haircut, the barber used an electric razor to trim the neckline. It felt painful, but seemed minor—until bright red ridges and inflammation appeared afterward.

My wife returned the next day, documented the injury like many Japanese consumers do, and raised the issue. The young barber denied responsibility. Only a senior barber apologized.

This wasn’t just a technical error. It was a cultural failure:

• No immediate ownership

• No concern for a long-term client

• No visible follow-up

• No sign the tool was checked to prevent recurrence

Mini-summary: Disengagement shows up as denial, avoidance, and lack of care after mistakes.

Japan (日本 — Japan) has a high baseline for client care. So failures stand out sharply.

Even when mistakes happen, a strong service culture allows recovery because staff act quickly, apologize sincerely, and fix the root cause. Without that culture, every error becomes a reputational wound.

In small organizations—like many Japanese companies (日本企業 — Japanese companies)—leadership often invests heavily in hard skills and almost nothing in soft skills. That imbalance is fatal.

Mini-summary: In Japan, accountability isn’t optional—it’s the foundation of trust and repeat business.

What should the barbershop have done instead?

A professional, client-first response would have been straightforward:

1. Apologize immediately and take responsibility.

2. Inspect the razor to confirm if it was faulty.

3. Correct the process so it never happens again.

4. Follow up with the customer to rebuild trust.

None of that happened. Which signals one thing: the client-care culture isn’t being led, trained, or reinforced.

Mini-summary: The right response is a simple system of apology, investigation, correction, and follow-up.

What does this teach leaders about training priorities?

Hard skills keep operations running. Soft skills keep businesses alive.

Leaders must ask:

• Are we training only for task performance?

• Have we created a shared service standard everyone knows?

• Do people understand what to do when problems arise?

If the answers are unclear, culture becomes accidental—which is dangerous.

For multinational companies (外資系企業 — foreign-affiliated / multinational companies) and Japanese firms alike, this is a core leadership issue, especially in service industries.

Mini-summary: Training must build both capability and character—or customer trust breaks.

One workplace issue in Japan is strong fear of errors. That fear can push people into:

• hiding mistakes

• denying responsibility

• avoiding disclosure

Leaders must actively create a culture where:

• a mistake is not fatal to your career

• hiding it is fatal

Until that message is consistent, people will choose self-protection over company protection.

Mini-summary: When fear dominates culture, accountability disappears.

Will the customer return—and why does that matter?

My wife says I shouldn’t return. I’m undecided.

As a small business owner, I empathize with the dilemma: staff shortages in Japanese hairdressing mean owners can lose customers more easily than employees.

But that logic only works short-term. Over time, disengaged staff cost more than they save.

Mini-summary: Retention of weak culture may feel necessary now, but it quietly destroys the future.

How do engaged employees grow your business?

Engaged employees are self-motivated. Self-motivated people are inspired. Inspired people improve results without being pushed.

The real question for every leader is: are you inspiring them?

Mini-summary: Inspiration drives engagement, and engagement drives growth.

• People are the hardest part of business because mindset affects everything downstream.

• In Japan, accountability after mistakes is essential for client trust.

• Soft-skills training and service culture must be led, not assumed.

• A healthy culture says mistakes can be fixed—but hiding them cannot.

Founded in the U.S. in 1912, Dale Carnegie Training has supported individuals and companies worldwide for over a century in leadership, sales, presentation, executive coaching, and DEI. Our Tokyo office, established in 1963, has been empowering both Japanese and multinational corporate clients ever since.