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From my understanding, lawyers working with non-Japanese-speaking clients charge a premium. This is true for essentially all professional services in Japan (an
by patio11 10y ago
From my understanding, lawyers working with non-Japanese-speaking clients charge a premium.
This is true for essentially all professional services in Japan (and, relatedly, can be true for renting depending on how one goes about that), and it is not driven entirely by costs. Partly, this is simply "You require something which is much harder to deliver than standard services; this restricts your labor pool by > 98% here; deal with the increased price." Partly there exists a bit of rent-seeking behavior that might be politely termed "the English tax."
You will occasionally find service providers who quote the English tax rate even when the assumption is services will not actually be provided in English. I'm generally polite when asking for the literate professional rate precisely once. (It is sometimes called out on an obvious line item on the invoice; it is often more subtle.)
- ktRolster 10y agoI'm generally polite when asking for the literate professional rate precisely once. What do you do when you need to ask more than once?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- noobermin 10y agoIsn't it the same for any foreigner in any country? The US tries to be multicultural in some respects but not being able to speak English hampers you quite a bit too.
- patio11 10y agoSuppose you are in the United States and your last name is Tanaka. You interview an accountant and ask for a proposal for bookkeeping and accounting for your software company. Suppose the accountant comes back with a proposal which quotes you including a line item for Japanese translation. (This is quite unlikely, but roll with it.) You tell the accountant "Uh, thanks, but: we'll be working together in English." "Oh yes, that's good, we don't really speak Japanese." "Why are you quoting for Japanese translation then?" "To cover our increase costs of dealing with you." "So you... expected to hire an external translator?" "Well, no, more of an aggravational cost sort of issue rather than a direct cost sort of issue." This would be cause for an absolutely nuclear reaction from the client in the US. In Japan, it's Tuesday.
- raleighm 10y agoFortunately not my Tuesdays in Japan. I've been here seven years and never seen behavior like that. Sorry you've had such bad experiences.
- raleighm 10y agoYes. You can get some things done in Tokyo using only English. You can get nothing done in NYC using only Japanese.
- raleighm 10y agoYes, exactly. The increased cost can also let Japanese lawyers avoid doing the work - by pricing the client out - without saying no. Providing services in English is a lot of work for a Japanese lawyer. Can't easily use off-the-shelf memos or leverage past work, etc. Not many are eager to do it. There are non-Japanese lawyers in Tokyo (I'm one) but they're not allowed - or usually competent - to advise on Japanese legal matters. And the supply of Japanese lawyers itself is limited, so unfortunately there aren't many options. Lawyer-to-population ratio in Japan is close to 1:3000 as opposed to 1:300 or so in the US.