Northern Sentinelese LinkedIn

The vestigial limb of Japan's corporate world

If you’ve ever had the misfortune of looking for a job, you may have been exposed to the “social” media platform of LinkedIn. A quick primer of LinkedIn will follow now, but feel free to skip ahead if you don’t want to relive the experience.

LinkedIntroduction

The platform was launched in the early 2000s for professional-type connections, networking and sharing job opportunities, as well as specific industry-relevant news and resources. With such a noble aim, the platform slowly but surely gained a foothold as a global social media platform that almost everyone within the corporate setting now reluctantly signs up to. People felt compelled to have a presence on the platform, since all the recruiters and companies were there. This vicious cycle meant LinkedIn kept on growing, spawning new sub-breeds such as the LinkedInfluencer.

Somewhere along the way, LinkedIn also looked across the seas for new pastures to conquer. Like a zombie apocalypse, more and more countries fell under the spell of the work-based social network. After all, who needs friends when you have networking opportunities!

Japanese No Links

On paper, the size and complexity of the Japanese economy was a perfect target for rapid expansion, and LinkedIn’s Japanese office was set up in 2011. True, Japan had entrenched headhunting and recruitment agencies, and operated in another language, but the higher-up hirers at LinkedIn thought these barriers solvable in a few months, if not a year.

Just like any other economy, right? Well, as Nobel-winning economist Simon Kuznet would say, there are four types of economies, developed, undeveloped, Japan and Argentina. Japan is a bit of a special child both when adopting foreign influences, and exporting their own.

We’ve covered a little in the Galapagos Syndrome… but this is the opposite. A more apt comparison here is the North Sentinelese Corollary, an island that kills every outsider coming in. Not out of hatred or fear, but simply because their culture doesn’t fit well.

The main feeling one gets from using LinkedIn in Japan is one of absence. At least when compared to Australia, and anecdotally USA. If absence isn’t the right word, maybe barren, or tumbleweed-y.

Let me explain. Like a vestigial appendage to the job market, LinkedIn is still floating around in Japan, but no one really knows why. Job posters rarely post on it, job seekers don’t seek it, but both still feel like it should be around for some reason. This is opposed to the almost all-encompassing grip on mid-level employment LinkedIn enjoys in most other parts of the world.

You might think that the language barrier is stopping this behemoth from landing. From what I can tell (with admittedly poor Japanese comprehension), they have been more than capable at translating their product.

Just, no one really likes it.

This is no language fault, but a cultural misstep. For LinkedIn believed that Japanese workers behaved like other developed economies. They thought workers wanted that space for “work networking” and “social status posting”.

Of course, this failed. Japanese working culture has already deftly balanced the see-saw that sits life and work. They simply let work be the sumo wrestler on one side, and life be a toddler using the see saw as a slide. To put it simply, the traditional work culture in Japan is… intense.

Corporate workers saw no need to use a separate platform to co-ordinate potential job opportunities, instead opting to continue in the traditional style of working. Same-place-from-graduation-to-retirement type of thing. Now, people might state that Japanese work culture has evolved past that point, but it is in much the same way North Sentinelese Islanders may now use bows instead of spears. The evolution has shifted slightly from giant conglomerates that all but dictated every social engagement, to smaller “cool and/or newer” companies giving you the flexibility to attend “voluntary” extracurricular work activities like PK Nights and innumerable work dinners.

There is little doubt that the central force binding Japanese society is still the institution of work. Social hierarchies build off this; wedding gifts are doled out according to your rank, and daily routines march to this drumbeat.

Somehow, LinkedIn didn’t get the memo. So they waltzed into a prehistoric land filled with roaming dinosaurs, armed with only a couple of jazzed up slide decks and a big name. Of course they didn’t thrive. They are the vestigial wing, offering lateral mid-career moves to the wind. Instead of being the all-seeing, must-have social platform for careerists, it has become the hyper niche platform for expats and strange fast-paced non-Japanese-only industries within Japan. Indeed, traditional job boards were still the main option for any Japanese speaking-job. Especially Indeed.

Welcome to Zuckerberg’s Fantasy

Then along came Facebook.

Facebook somehow waltzed into Japan’s professional sphere to inexplicably become a Japanese superapp. Yes, the blue behemoth has avoided the pitfalls of this island nation to become the new dominant predator in the professional networking arena.

Let us examine how this happened. For all of the anti-Facebook bluster, the key detail in all of social media is how many active users they have (Looking at you, Substack). Facebook came here with their giant base, and introduced groups.

Facebook Groups became the one pitstop for all office workers. In it, you were able to participate in a community that embraced Facebook’s existing personal relationship networks with the bonds formed through work. The blend of social and official on Facebook ensures you can be up to date on the status photos of your bosses newborns, and easily transition that to a conversation about a new promotion. Instead of the muck of navigating the constant self-promoting LinkedIn posts, on Japanese Facebook, any person in your personal or business life might be the opening to new opportunities. Ultimately, Facebook solved the single biggest reason why LinkedIn failed. Job switching rates are much lower here. Thus, the importance of connecting with your existing colleagues outside of formal work relationships is greater.

While LinkedIn links in with Western markets, where job seekers and employers embrace its platform for connections and opportunities, LinkedIn’s formula simply does not resonate with Japan’s unique corporate culture. The deep-rooted traditions of stability, hierarchical respect, and a murky line between work and personal life have made LinkedIn act as a pointless appendage to most Japanese professional life.

Facebook, the relic of the over 60, has turned back the years and captured the working age niche in Japan as the go-to platform for professionals. With its large user base and community-oriented groups, Facebook has adapted better to the social fabric of Japan’s workforce, becoming an unlikely but effective hub for professional connections. So if you ever launch a multi-billion dollar company and are looking for how to enter the Japanese market, consider its deeper cultural landscape. Or you can just read more Hidden Japan!