Interview with Rony Taluqdar of NEC, about His Working Experience in Japan

Video Interview with Rony

Transcript of The Video

Ryoko: Good morning, Ronnie. Thank you for joining us today here at EJable. It’s really exciting to finally get this chance to talk to you and learn about your personal experience working here in Japan. It would be great if you could start with your introduction and how you came to Japan.

Rony: Hi, Ryoko. Thank you so much for inviting me. It’s my pleasure to be there, actually.

Well, I was born in Bangladesh in a small city very close to the Indian border. I was like 19 or 20 when I came to Japan. It was 2005. It’s almost 17 years in Japan, a very long time.

I learned Japanese, went to a school, and joined a Japanese company when I came to Japan.

I have a Japanese wife and two kids born in Japan. I’m not a very brilliant person who is graduated from MIT or something. I’m a very ordinary guy. I wouldn’t say I like studying much; I’m also more like a sportsperson. I play cricket. It was just that somehow, I got a chance to come to Japan as a teenager and stayed here for the past 17 years.

Ryoko: OK, I see. That’s very nice. Well, what was your first and very initial encounter with Japan?

Rony: Yeah, actually, when I was born in a very, very small village, there was no electricity and not a good communication system. My father was an army person and a very strict guy.

During holidays I used to go to my grandmother’s home, and in that place, there was a television, which was Sony 😊. So that was the starting to know a Japanese product. And then I started watching my first drama, Oshin; maybe it’s very old, and a generation gap will be there.

So that was my starting to learn about Japan thru this drama called Oshin. So that’s how I knew Japan had a lot of technology like Sony, the drama, and how the country was moving forward. Another thing was a camera. In the village, we had a shop that rented a camera. We could rent a camera and buy a film to take pictures. And that camera was Yashica—a very old Japanese brand.

Ryoko: I have no idea.

Rony: Yes, that’s how I learned how Japan invented technology and products like cameras and televisions, etc. So, those were my first encounters with Japan, and I learned about Japan.

Ryoko: I see. OK. And so, you’ve been here for over 15 years, almost 17 years!

Rony: 17 years, yeah.

Ryoko: 17 years. Have you learned to speak Japanese fluently, and what’s your experience with the Japanese language?

Rony: Yeah, this is a story I would like to mention. As I mentioned, I was not a very smart or brilliant guy like many others, and I liked playing cricket. I wanted to be a professional cricket player.

Now, professional cricket is very popular in Bangladesh, and people have cricket as a career but at that time it was not.

At that time, if you selected cricket for professional life, your career would not be much. So, my father asked me to change to a different career and go to Japan and learn the technology.

At that time thought about moving to Japan to give it a try. We had some pamphlets with applications in the school inviting private students to come to Japan. So, I applied to come to go to Japan.

I came to Japan with US$30.00 in my pocket.

The school was in Sendai. At that time, I thought English would be OK in Japan even though my English was not good. However, at immigration, I realized that it was not the case. Although I got through immigration at that time, I decided to learn the language.

So that’s how I started with the Japanese language School, learning Japanese every day for two years.

I had a lot of Chinese friends in the class. They were very good and advanced in Japanese, reading Kanji and all. So, I was very disappointed that I was not as good as them. So, I worked hard learning Japanese, doing part-time jobs, and attending school for academic learning. I started learning Japanese with “Minna No Nihongo.”

But the interesting thing is that the grammar is almost the same in Japanese and Bangla, so speaking is not that hard. After four to six months, I could speak Japanese, but learning writing and reading took two years. So that’s the story of how I learned Japanese, and I am still learning.

Ryoko: Ohh, wow. And do you feel that compared to 17 years ago, more people speak English in Japan? Or not really?

Rony: Yeah, more and more people are speaking English in Japan now. However, my time was different. It’s more. I mean, during my time, maybe I was the only one in school from Bangladesh, but now there are a lot of people. Now you don’t really need to learn Japanese because some companies offer jobs to people from other countries who speak only English, but my story was different.

Ryoko: OK, I see. Then moving on to your job, could you explain a bit about your current position at NTT?

Rony: It is NEC, actually, not NTT 😊

Ryoko: Oh, sorry.

Rony: Yeah, yeah. So, NEC is undergoing digital transformation. You know that companies like Amazon and Google are doing a lot in the technology space; however, Japan has not caught up with them yet. So, NEC has set up a new department to work on more digital transformation. So, I’m assigned to explore what new things can be done for transformation. Most of the people come from the outside for that division. We are trying to make a new face of NEC with the transformation to make it a global technology company in the future.

Ryoko: OK. So, does your department or your team consist of many international people? What is the environment like?

Rony: Yeah, this is a new department we just built. So, there are still only a few international people. We need Japanese-speaking people as there are more Japanese people. However, we are trying to change that.

Ryoko: OK, I see. So, you mainly use Japanese in your work.

Rony: Yes, but NEC is 125 years old and a very big company, so we have offices around the world. So, I have colleagues outside of Japan with whom we have a chance to communicate in English.

Ryoko: OK, I see that over the past 17 years, you’ve been in different companies. So, did you feel like you had to adapt to the Japanese working culture over these years?

Rony: Yeah, maybe I’m a little bit different. However, my case was different because I never worked in a foreign company. I only worked in traditional Japanese companies.

Ryoko: Right.

Rony: When I joined my first company, which was a telecommunication company, I was the only foreigner in that company, but now they have a lot of foreigners after that.

Now I can say that Japan is changing and a lot of foreigners are working here. So, that’s a good sign. This is one aspect where Japan needs more change to increase diversity.

Ryoko: Yeah, that’s for sure. OK, that’s good. I’m glad to know that there is more diversity in the working force. OK. And then, could you let me know what you like about your current position?

Rony: As I mentioned, we are working to bring a big digital transformation in this new department. The vision is to transform NEC from a traditional Japanese company to a leading global technology company. That is the most interesting part of my job now.

Ryoko: OK, great. I see. And what are your future plans for your work in Japan? Would you like to stay at NEC and grow this department, or do you have other aspirations?

Rony: I am only taking Japanese citizenship. And in fact, I never studied IT in my country. Whatever I studied and gained knowledge about was given by Japan. So, with my experience and knowledge, my vision is to help promote Japanese technology awareness globally so that people know more about Japan and Japanese technology.

Also, diversity is improving in Japan, and more foreigners and Japanese will work together. So, I will be interested in bridging.

Ryoko: OK, amazing. That sounds very amazing. OK, moving on to a bit of your social life here in Japan, what aspects of Japanese culture do you like?

Rony: Yeah. So, I want to divide it into two parts. One is the personal life and then the Japanese work culture.

Ryoko: OK.

Rony: So, when it is about the Japanese culture for the personal life, it is more about respect, politeness, and kindness. I have been living in Japan for long. My kids attend Japanese school, and I have Japanese neighbors, so we have a community here. The good thing is that they respect each other so much.

In the beginning, there was a little uneasy feeling because of not being Japanese. However, that does not mean that people don’t respect you. But you need to go out and communicate with them and reciprocate the politeness, and it becomes better and better. In fact, Japanese people like to know more about you.

And when it comes to the Japanese culture, I like two things. One is the Kaizen, and the other is Ikigai.

I like Kaizen, which is about continuous improvement on a daily basis. People may come from different backgrounds, some technical and some without technological background, but Kaizen is a continuous challenge to find better ways to do things on a daily basis and to improve continuously. It needs teamwork, self-discipline, and commitment. I mean, there is no right answer, so we have to continuously improve, work hard, and find solutions to do things better. This is the reason that I like Kaizen culture so much.

Ikigai is very famous, and I think most people know about it. It’s again about hard work.

Ryoko: I see. Well, I know that you have two kids. And what do you do in your free time and during the weekends with your kids?

Rony: Actually, I wanted to be a cricket player. So, after I came to Japan, I never gave up on my dream. I have been playing cricket for a long with the Japan Cricket League Division-1.

Now what I am doing is making a cricket team with my friends. This is because I am getting older, and the younger generation needs to play in the Japan Super League.

So, if anyone has an interest in playing cricket, they can contact me and join my team 😊.

Ryoko: OK.

Rony: Cricket is not a very famous sport in Japan but in India, Bangladesh, Australia, and England, it is very, very famous. Maybe I will teach cricket to my daughter to play at the professional level. So, maybe what I could not do, she may do.

Ryoko: I see. And do you have any wishes? To go back to Bangladesh at some point in time, or not really?

Rony: At this moment, I don’t have any plans. It depends on my kids, also.

Ryoko: Yeah, yeah.

Rony: I mean, I don’t know what I will do towards the end of my life. But love Japan and have been living here for a long.

Ryoko: OK.

Rony: So, I don’t know, and actually, no plan at this moment.

Ryoko: OK, great. Then moving on to just purely living here – do you like how busy it is here? As you know, the people are very busy, like transportation is very crowded. How do you feel about this?

Rony: Yeah, actually, it is. When I was a teenager, I liked the busiest life. I lived in Shinjuku, the center of Tokyo. I loved it very much, actually. Going out with friends, dinners, Karaoke and all. All friends and colleagues around your age of 20 to 22 years. We had this entire building as our company dormitory. That was a different life, and we enjoyed it.

However, after getting married and having kids, I now live in the countryside, in Chiba. Kids have a lot of options there. I also do gardening, growing vegetables, etc.

So, I enjoyed half of my life in busy places, and now I am enjoying the countryside life.

Ryoko: OK. That’s very nice. Then just moving on to my last two questions. Do you have any tips that you could give to those who are applying for jobs in Japan and are going through interviews? Do you have any tips for interviews in Japan?

Rony: Yeah, actually, yes. First that you need to understand know Japanese culture. There again, there are two kinds of companies. On the one hand, you have companies like Mercari, Uniqlo, etc., which are not traditional Japanese companies and they don’t care much about cultural aspects and language, and on the other hand, you have traditional Japanese companies. In those companies, you need to understand the Japanese culture and mindset.

Ryoko: OK.

Rony: And for that, you should learn Japanese. The Japanese language becomes a tool to understand the Japanese mindset better. If you have the right intention, you can learn Japanese. You need to understand the mindset, how Japanese people think, what is in the back of their minds all that. So, more than the language, you need to understand the culture, for example, what I mentioned about the Kaizen. Language serves as a tool for that, and you can learn it after coming to Japan.

Ryoko: Right, That’s great advice. Then do you have any other tips or advice for people looking to work here?

Rony: Yeah. So, yes, there are many companies now, and the situation is quite different than when I came here. There is a great shortage of IT talent, and so many companies are looking for IT talent.

Ryoko: Right.

Rony: And companies are looking for more diversity. So, that’s a great opportunity for people who wish to explore opportunities beyond their own countries.

The immigration policies are becoming easier for Japanese work visas. So, if you wish to live in this country, it’s a very good choice. It is one of the safest countries in the world.

I suggest that working here to be a part of the new generation of Japan and Japan’s transformation is a good choice, especially for IT people. Just come to Japan and enjoy the Japanese life.

Ryoko: OK, great. Thank you for that advice. And then I guess that wraps up my questions for you unless you have any comments or anything else you would like to add.

Rony: Uh, no, actually. Thank you so much for the chance to have me here. And to everyone, you can contact me for any advice. I will be pleased to give any information or advice to help.

Ryoko: That’s great. Thank you so much. And thank you for your time today as well. I wish you the best of luck in the future.

Rony: As well, yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your time.