Mr. Wang,  joined in 2013
Graduated from a university in China with a major in Japanese. He came to Japan to find employment with his wife, who graduated from the same university. He joined HighChem after an interview introduced by a university senior.

Family composition:  Dad (Mr. Wang), Mom (full-time employment), Daughter (7 years old), Daughter (3 years old), Grandparents (the grandparents from either dad or mom’s side come from China every six months to help with childcare)

Mr. Yu,  joined in September 2022
After completing his master’s degree in Japan, he found employment in China. At that time, he had connections with a HighChem pharmaceutical department representative. He returned to Japan and was involved in DNA research in a doctoral program. After completing his studies, he worked at a major manufacturer’s research institute before joining HighChem.

Family composition:  Dad (Mr. Yu), Mom (full-time employment), Son (5 years old), Grandparents (Mr. Yu’s parents)

Mr. Sai,  joined in 2014
After graduating from a university in Japan, he worked in accounting at a Japanese semiconductor trading company. He left due to excessive overtime and no one in management smiling, aiming for a happier management position at HighChem. His hobby is golf.

Family composition: Dad (Mr. Sai), Mom (part-time employment), Son (11 years old), Son (9 years old)

——What kind of role does a dad play in your family?

Wang  Well… I guess I’m the one who pays. I pay when we eat out, I order online when my wife tells me to, that’s my main job at home.

When girls turn 3 or 4, they start to dislike their dads (tears). But I also have the job of taking my youngest to daycare every morning.

Yu・Sai  That’s an important job.

Wang  My eldest is already 7, so she goes out to play with her friends. So, I don’t really feel like I’m getting along with my two daughters. When we go shopping and there’s a snack they want, they say, “We’ll be nice to Dad, so please buy it for us,” and that alone makes me happy.

Yu: “I’m honing my skills to explain science in words that even children can understand.”

Yu  Since we have a boy, it’s my job to bathe him. He can go to the toilet by himself now, but when we’re out, I go with him. My wife wants to instill a sense of gender, it seems.

Also, I help with cooking and washing dishes, and my wife and I take turns reading picture books before bed. I also make crafts for him and teach him science.

I try to explain not only simple picture books but also things that can teach science, and when we go to a museum, I try to explain the exhibits in words that children can understand. If I can explain things in a way that anyone can understand, it will be useful in the future when I have to instruct my subordinates.

I think the skill of explaining things clearly is useful in both parenting and work. But even if I try hard to explain, the child may only understand about half of it.

Sai  In my case, I’m in charge of tasks that require strength like handling the trash bin, sweeping the floor, wiping the windows, and washing the car. I don’t wipe the windows every day, but I do wipe the outside windows occasionally, and my wife has never touched the window glass. I’m the one who washes the car, not by hand though.

Also, I work from home every Friday, and on this day, I go to pick up my child from cram school at night. It usually takes about 30 minutes one way, so it’s my job on the day I work from home.

Recently, watching my child’s studies has also become a job. At first, I was strict and he didn’t want to study with me, but now that he’s in 5th grade, the content seems difficult and he relies on me.

Wang  My child is still in the first grade, so I do watch my child’s studies, which is simple content like reading aloud and addition and subtraction up to 10.

Also, my child is learning piano, so I listen to see if she can play well. I’m not familiar with the piano, so if she tries hard and plays, I think it’s good, but my wife, who learned piano when she was little, instructs her strictly. I think it’s enough, though.

But when she doesn’t want to practice, I get angry. Children want to play, of course, but when they don’t practice properly, I think it’s important to show them the right attitude as a parent.

Sai  I get angry at my wife, saying, “Why are you so strict!” and try to win the children’s favor. I wonder if the children will say, “I love Dad!” (laughs).

——Do you feel any benefits of working at HighChem from a dad’s perspective, or any connection between childcare and work?

Wang  HighChem has many Chinese employees who are raising children in Japan, and it’s nice to have a workplace where we can exchange information about childcare.

For example, if you want your child to learn more Chinese in Japan, you can get introductions from colleagues about which schools or teachers have good teaching methods.

Now, my child is also starting to study Chinese characters, and it seems to have an effect on learning Japanese. It’s an opportunity to know that there are various ways to read one character, and there are parts that are common to Japanese.

A few months ago, she was the only first grader in the school to be able to pass the Kanji test. I feel that this is also the effect of learning Chinese.

Sai  The education level for children among HighChem employees is high, isn’t it?

Yu　There are many events at HighChem where you can participate with your children, and it’s helpful to be able to build work connections through your children. I’m still new to the company, but when I participated in an event with my child, I got closer to everyone.

Also, at my previous job, there were only Japanese children around, so I had trouble interacting. But when I came to HighChem, there were many Chinese families around, and my child made many friends to play with.

Wang: “HighChem has many events where you can participate with your children, and you can smoothly build work relationships.”

Wang  I remember that at the company trip in 2015, my daughter and Sai’s son were playing together, and that was the start of our connection. Because the children were playing together, we had the opportunity to greet each other, and the parents also connected.

Being able to get acquainted through children and being able to build work relationships smoothly is also a good point of HighChem. When I want to talk to someone at work, topics about children are useful for starting a conversation, like “How’s your child doing lately?” or “I went to such and such park with my child.” From there, it’s often easier to move on to work discussions.

Sai  My child has started going to cram school, so I haven’t been able to participate in events much recently. But, I guess you could call it “child diplomacy,” there’s definitely something like that.

Yu  Also, the “Dad & Mom Certification” video created for HighChem’s 25th anniversary is used in company briefings and OB visits, and all the students who watch it are so moved that they seem to cry.

That also becomes material for promoting the company, and I think it’s useful for HR recruitment. The connection between employees and children, the moments of emotion, isn’t that also a part of HighChem that can be appealing ?​

——As Chinese people raising children in Japan, you may have similar concerns and easily share common themes.

Sai  That’s probably true. Even with children, there are parts where you feel different from the children who go to the same elementary school. It’s not discrimination, but it’s a common language because you feel some kind of difference. Children probably feel something too.

Wang  Yes, my older child seems to have questions about her roots starting from around the age of 5. She began to be aware of the differences with others from things like why her parents speak Chinese while other children’s parents speak Japanese, and even the pronunciation of her name is different.

That’s not something you can define as “because you’re Chinese” or “because you’re Japanese”.I hope they get along regardless of nationality and have a global perspective. They may go to another country in the future, and it would be nice if they could choose their own path while being aware of different cultures.

In the class where my older child goes to school, there are children from Japan, China, Korea, and Bangladesh, and these four nationalities are gathered in a group of just about 30 people. There is no discrimination based on nationality, and I think it’s a very good environment.

Recently, Japanese parents seem to want to know more about people from other countries and want to interact with them, and we have takoyaki parties and barbecues as a family. They also ask about Chinese lifestyle and recommended spots, and it seems that they are interested in China.

Yu  My child is going to a Chinese school, so there are few Japanese children. There is no discrimination due to nationality.

Children aged 1-2 can play together even if they don’t understand the language, but as they get to be 3-4 years old, they may become conscious of the difference in language. So, I have been instilling the consciousness of getting along regardless of nationality from around the age of 3. 

If you have been in Japan since you were a child and can speak both Japanese and Chinese, you can interact with people from either country. If you learn about other countries and regions, your range of interaction will expand even more. Perhaps because I’ve been telling my child that from around the age of 3, he is now interested in English, and he has started studying English so that he can talk to people from anywhere in the world in the future.

Sai: “The place where your heart is, is your nationality and your hometown.”

Sai  Since I have naturalized, I get asked quite a bit by my child, “What nationality will I be?” I think he has questions about what his relationship with China is because I have become Japanese.

On that point, I don’t have a definitive answer. The place where your heart is, is your nationality and your hometown. You can live as a Japanese person, you can be a Chinese person in Japan, and you may even go to China as a Japanese person in the future.

I think that’s something the child decides for themselves, not something the parent tells them to decide. So, I can’t give a superficial answer, and I haven’t. I think it’s good to interpret it in a way you like and have your own answer.

——From the perspective of Chinese dads, what do you think is good about raising children in Japan?

Wang　I think Japan has a well-developed welfare system for raising children. Children’s medical expenses are almost free, and perhaps because of the declining birthrate, hospitals are not very crowded.

In China, when a child gets sick, everyone goes to a highly specialized hospital, so you end up waiting for hours. Once, my child had a fever at night and we went to the hospital, but even late at night, there were 400 people waiting in front of me.

Also, the teachers at nurseries and schools are all kind, and you can leave your children with them with peace of mind. There is a culture of group commuting where children on the same school route gather, and the local grandparents also guide us, which is very reassuring.

In China, because of the many accidents and incidents, it is worrying if parents do not pick up and drop off even junior high school students. Japan has a very reassuring environment for parents to send their children to school, and it is also psychologically easy.

——On the contrary, is there anything you think is strange about Japan?

Yu  In Japan, in order to put a child in a nursery, both parents have to be working. But to have both parents working, you first need to have a place to leave your child, which is a contradiction.

In China, there is no such problem, and there are many places to leave children. Japan is particularly experiencing a declining birthrate, and I hope they will improve this to make it easier to raise children. 

Also, while Wang mentioned the good points of Japanese hospitals, there are times when I feel there is room for improvement in the many conservative treatments. In China, even a little cough is thoroughly examined, and it may feel like overdoing it, but often symptoms are not taken lightly. It may be a cultural difference, but Japanese hospitals mostly take a symptomatic approach, and they don’t provide a deeper treatment unless the patient speaks up strongly.

Wang  There is a junior high school near my home, and junior high school boys and girls walk hand in hand with confidence. In China, such a thing is hardly allowed, and as a father of a daughter, I am worried (laughs).

——Indeed, dads would be worried (laughs).

Sai  Dads with daughters worry early.

Wang  In China, love is basically prohibited until high school graduation. It’s early for first and second year junior high school students.

——Prohibited until high school graduation!? That feels late from a Japanese perspective.

Sai  Rather than until high school graduation, it might be better to say until they get into a good university. After all, as parents, we have to get them into a good university, so I think it’s a competition in education.

Wang  I get worried when I see junior high school students holding hands, but this is also a cultural difference.