ABSTRACT
For newcomers, Japanese universities can be full of unexpected twists and turns. The preponderance of meetings and the difficulty starting new initiatives can be especially disheartening. On the other hand, the extreme positive support from your colleagues and the staff can be humbling. While it makes sense that the key to understanding the way things work is to understand your Japanese colleagues, here we’d like to change that perspective: The key to understanding your Japanese colleagues is to understand how things work. Each university and college has its own culture, but most of the values and behaviors of your colleagues come from a kind of university cultural determinism. Your colleagues might not be very different than other Japanese, but their actions and values are shaped by the institutional systems they operate in. Behavior and bureaucracy are not just linked; they are inseparable. 2
