President Vladimir Putin welcomed over 200 Japanese corporate leaders in Moscow earlier this month to strengthen business ties between the two countries, but experts say negative stereotypes about Japanese management may throw obstacles before Japanese firms seeking Russian workers.

"Many Russians are afraid to work for Japanese companies, because they are not ready for such a conservative atmosphere," said Irina Klyusova, business development manager at the Professional Business recruitment agency. She added that, unlike Western forms of corporate management, the Japanese require "stiff subordination and the necessity to submit to orders."

Similarly, another recruitment specialist, who declined to give his name, said: "We have to convince people to go to work for the Japanese." He added that he had worked with many companies from Japan, and that "most Russian employees doubt that they can ever be a success in Japanese companies."

But other specialists were less pessimistic. They noted that, despite some surface differences, many shared ideas put Japanese practices in greater harmony with Russian sensibilities than Western ones.

"If, in the American management style, the key word is ‘individualism,’ in the Japanese style it is ‘collectivism,’" said Vladimir Ovsyannikov, of the ANO Japanese Center, an Autonomic Noncommercial Organization that teaches Japanese methods of management. "I believe that studying the Japanese type of management and the historical experience of Japan in reviving a ruined economy is more important for Russia at this point than the individualism and liberalism of the Anglo-Saxon example.”

"The capitalism that has been built in Japanese society is more like a people’s capitalism; it is more directed toward the common good rather than individual well-being," he added.

In a similar vein, Shigeru Iwamoto, general manager of the Moscow representative office of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. pointed out that Japanese firms have a strong inclination to reward seniority and are likely to reshuffle people within a company — much like in the Soviet Union — because their business philosophy is based on lifetime employment.

"The Russian management mentality is much further away from the American one than from the Japanese one," he said.

Still, of the 90 Japanese representative offices throughout the country (73 of them located in Moscow), many say that they have had to adjust their operating styles to meet local work preferences.

"The difficulty of adapting to Russia is that in Japan, company life has a big priority," said Takayuki Okuno, chief of Casio Computer Co.’s Moscow branch office. "But here [in Russia] private life is also very important, especially in spring and summer time."

In some cases, Japanese management principles have been almost entirely abandoned. Sergei Nosov, director of development at Moscow Toyota Center, said: "Today we are in a symbiosis: We are a Japanese company, but our management is Russian." He added that only a few minor Japanese practices have been carried over.

Highlighting the differences in approach, he said: "The Japanese are absolutely punctual — they come to meetings on time — and it takes a long time indeed to assemble the Russian managers together. Once the Japanese have set a goal and developed a strategy, they will not modify it."

Meanwhile, he added, Russians are used to operating in a totally different way. "After a meeting, they change their minds while corresponding with each other through e-mail." This relaxed way of doing things was typical for Soviet-era enterprises, he said.

However, for Oleg Orchakov, director of a local business institute, the reason was more philosophical. "Rough discipline doesn’t fit us," he said. "Russians have an inner freedom and the desire to use it."