u/JustTinyPeach

My husband recently started working at a large company in Japan as a software engineer/programmer. He joined as a 新卒 employee.

What surprised us is that instead of programming or technical training, he spends most of his time answering phones, cleaning, attending lectures about corporate values, and learning things like how to properly hand over business cards.

Meanwhile, I also joined a Japanese company as a 新卒 employee around the same time, and I was put onto actual company projects almost immediately. I’ve already been working on real tasks for nearly two months now.

So we’re both really confused by the difference.

Is this normal in Japanese IT companies? Has anyone experienced something similar? Does it usually get better later, or is this a red flag?

I understand that business manners and company culture are important in Japan, but right now it feels like he’s being trained to be office staff rather than an engineer.

(He has programming experience by the way.)