Japan General Manager - Business Development Director - Kim Christian Botho Pedersen


Social responsibility

My believe:

 
I believe that we all have skills that can benefit the society, and I also believe that we have an obligation to at least try to do what we think is good for the society. Social responsibility is not only a term for companies, but also for individuals. I believe that "one man" can change the world or society which also have been proven in history countless number of times. If a man does not contribute to the society or his surrounding environment, what is then the purpose of life?

What can I do:

 
As described on this web, I have a long history (forty some years) going back and forth between Japan and Denmark, two of the probably most different countries in terms of culture, history, language, way of thinking, norms etc. Further, I have been working within a lot of different industries and service sectors that I have a fairly good idea about the core differences between Japan and Denmark. Just like I am able to pinpoint problems between Japanese and non-Japanese companies, I am also able to pinpoint some of the most critical issues in the society in Japan, that Denmark or the Wesetrn world may have solutions to. I would like to contribute as much as possible to the Japanese society by sharing my knowledge to the Japanese people and also actively participate and contribute to the society.
     
I am most concerned about the extremely bad Japanese working environment. I have been working in both Japanese and Danish companies, so I know the difference well. I know what it is like to have 20, 30 or 40 hours of unpaid overtime work each week. I also know what it means to get properly paid for overtime work as in Denmark. I know how it feels like to be yelled at from morning to evening the whole week, month, year after year as many Japanese workers are experiencing. I also know how it is to be respected for the work you do or the qualifications that you posess.

Danish working environment is heaven compared to the Japanese working environment. My goal in life is to contribute to improvement of the Japanese working environment. I dont want the Japanese working environment to be like the Danish working environment. No, I want to provide the Japanese people with tools that make them capable of changing the working environment to what they think is right and fair.
     

Books in Japanese:

 
To change the Japanese working environment is a long term process. One of the most important things is to understand that there are ways to do things that is not necessary the way things are done today. Therefore, I have started describing the big differences in the Japanese and Danish society on an overall level. Why is freedom of speach so important? What is social welfare? How come Danish are always rated as the happiest nation in the world? What is the real reason? Why should you participate in democracy? What is democracy, or rather, what is the difference between democracy in Denmark and democracy in Japan? What are the differnces between Danish and Japanese working enrironment?

Those are some of the issues that I have written about in Japanes in my first publication "Recipe of the happiest nation in the world". The book is an e-book and is in Japanese.
     

Future plans:

 
My future plan is to write a book concentrating on the difference in working environment in Japan and Denmark. This is not an easy task, but there are hundreds of issues that is relevant for the Japanese society. First step of changing the society is to understand the present society. It becomes easier to understand the present society and the ways it can evolve if you know about other ways of doing things. I therefore believe that to describe the Danish working envoronment in Japanese, will have a positive effect on how Japaese people see their own working environment, and hopefully they would like to change it for the better when they have read my "future book" about the Danish working environment.

Japan can never become Denmark, and Denmark can never become Japan. But we can learn from each other and we can improve our society by learning from each other. I would like to contribute to this learning process as much as possible.