As I stood at the check in queue at Heathrow yesterday I had to smile and that smile led me to a realisation. Normally the week before traveling is occupied by administering emotional first aid to the growing stress levels of my esteemed and most honourable wife. On this trip I didn't have to change all of the internal locks on the doors in the house or turn back more than twice after we had set off to re-check any possible insecurities.
Yes, on this trip the stress levels were very much reduced and even when I explained that the chance of burglars finding our spare set of keys in the chosen hiding place was extremely remote, not overlooking the fact that they would already have to be inside our bedroom, there was a strange acceptance of an obvious truth.
O.K. so we can laugh but as I stood at the check-in desk I saw something that reinforced my understanding of Japan and the Japanese. If you have been to that palace of the god of queuing which is Heathrow then you will be familiar with the row after row of check in desks. Bland bare metal counters which can change identity between airline brands at the flick of a switch. Boring booths of certainty wherein you deposit your own personal belongings to the impersonal process.
But wait, what is this? As the switch is flicked from Thai Airlines to JAL, the Japanese national carrier, something different appears! On each desk there is placed an ash blue vase containing the most beautiful blue paper flower arrangement you could imagine, quite a bloom within that desert of conformity which is Heathrow. Yet how is this possible? Surely the Japanese culture is the epitome of conformity?
I had to ask why would JAL deviate from that which appears to be the absolute standard of check in desk presentation. JAL and JAL alone had placed flowers on their desks, not as could be expected, just for the first class sultans or for the corporate trough snuffler in business class but for all of their desks including us in cattle class. Every desk had the same blue vase with the same beautiful blue paper flowers arranged in the same manner! So uniformity wasn't thrown out of the window!
This uniformity within the existence of the irregular led me to the clue as to what was actually going on here. "Ahh, still Japanese!" I thought, no real sign of individuality so the purpose cannot be for the sake of differentiating JAL from another airline in the sense of check in desk territorial politics, no, this had to be about something quintessentially Japanese. This was all about customer service and the Japanese cultural need for certainty.
As those regular readers of my "postcards from Japan" will remember, there is one thing that distinguishes the Japanese above all others, that is the concept, belief in and delivery of customer service. In Japan the customer is god. This is a very striking difference to the UK where the shareholder is god. These two different cultures produce very different commercial societies. My honorable wife will often describe our version of customer service as "customer nuisance". For the Japanese the customer is the source of revenue and therefore is to be treated with respect and even care. In Britain, serving the profit needs of the shareholder is more important and therefore customer becomes an analogy of the word 'cattle'. We are farmed by the corporations and given all the attention required of the heffer in the slaughter yard. Those with real money, the shareholders, can afford to pay for first class or business class service and buy those standards of customer service that the Japanese accept as normal.
This standard approach to Japanese customers recognises the cultural element of stress. If you have a large population, crammed together with little opportunity for the expression of true individualism then stress is the last thing you need in the social kettle. The cultural anti stress delivery is one of certainty, by providing certainty everyone feels secure, everyone feels safe and the society just ploughs on even in the face of a global recession. Uncertainty is something the Japanese do not like, it makes them feel stressed, it makes them feel uneasy and it definitely makes them feel uncomfortable. That is why the trains run on time, not because they can but because they must. Japanese people need to know with absolute certainty that when they arrive to get their train for work, to go on holiday or to visit relatives, their train is certainly going to be on time. Any other outcome will cause stress and then you have the danger of a huge population panicking.
So that is why the vases with beautiful blue paper flowers are on the JAL check in desks. Not to set JAL apart from other airlines in that administrative territory, not to be different from the other check in desks but to say one thing to the queuing Japanese customer:
"It's ok, relax, you can leave your personal luggage here because now you have returned to the world of Japanese customer service. We think you are important and we will treat you with respect, politeness and attention at all times. You are safe, you are home from the moment you check in and we will look after you."
Later on the plane I felt that care first hand. We have flown with Virgin and B.A. to Tokyo before but this was our first time with JAL. I cannot condemn B.A. enough quite frankly, Absolutely shocking attitude and behaviour by the cabin staff towards those in cattle class. Virgin look better and feel better but only after you have flown B.A. not after you have flown JAL.
During the journey with the British customer nuisance carriers the staff literally hide from you for most of the trip. If you want something you have to go and get it because if they do respond to the steward call they make it pretty plain that you have disturbed them from their slumbers. On the JAL flight, almost every twenty minutes the steward team would wander up the isles checking to see if everyone is alright. If you need anything you only have to ask to obtain a smile and a polite response. An hour from Tokyo I asked a stewardess if I could have a landing card.
"Please may I get that for you after I have served this customer." She asked with a smile and I even had the sense that if I had said "No, I want it now." she would have gone and got it. About fifteen minutes later she appeared at my seat with the landing card and said, "I am sorry for the delay thank you for waiting patiently."
Not for a moment were we treated like cattle but then the blue vase and flowers promised that the moment I saw them. There was no uncertainty about that, it is a matter of principle if you are Japanese!
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