Over the years of working in Japan—across both Japanese-owned and foreign-owned companies—and having the responsibility to train and develop employees professionally in the field of corporate learning and development, I believe I’ve gained what I think are useful perspectives on why Japanese employees’ engagement ratings are the lowest in the world. This perception is based largely on annual engagement surveys conducted by global headquarters to gauge organizational health. I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on my experiences and offer a few insights that might help unravel this conundrum of low engagement.

A few years ago, I worked for a company that conducted an annual global engagement survey across all its offices, including Japan. When the results were released, Japan’s scores were, once again, among the lowest. The findings were concerning and prompted discussions about how to address the apparent lack of employee engagement.

What stood out to me, though, was how contradictory the data felt compared to my day-to-day interactions. The people I worked with in my opinion were dedicated, responsible, and consistently delivered high-quality work. Yet, according to the survey, they were among the least “engaged.” This disconnect prompted me to think more deeply about what “engagement” really means in the Japanese context.

One memory that stands out is a conversation I had with a senior manager shortly after I started a long-term tanshin funin (solo transfer) assignment. I had just given a presentation to the management team advocating for a more enjoyable and fulfilling work environment. Afterward, she said something that stayed with me: “In Japan, we don’t enjoy work—it’s just something we do. So when you talk about being ‘engaged,’ that doesn’t really make sense in the way we think about work.” She wasn’t dismissive—she understood what I was trying to achieve—but she was simply pointing out a deeply rooted cultural norm: work is a duty, not necessarily a source of joy or personal connection.

That conversation gave me a new lens through which to view Japan’s consistently low engagement scores. If the concept of “enjoying” work doesn’t resonate culturally, then survey questions rooted in that assumption may not yield accurate or meaningful insights.

Another experience reinforced this idea. Recently, I had to undergo minor surgery, and before scheduling it, I checked online reviews for the recommended hospital. The reviews were overwhelmingly negative, with long descriptions of bad service and poor treatment. I was concerned—until I looked at reviews for other hospitals and found a similar trend: harsh criticism, regardless of the institution.

In the end, the surgery went smoothly, and I had no complaints. The disconnect between my experience and the reviews reminded me of another cultural pattern in Japan: when given the opportunity to speak anonymously—whether in an online review or a workplace survey—people often express frustrations they would typically withhold in public or professional settings. In highly formal work environments, employees may not feel comfortable voicing dissatisfaction directly, but surveys offer a safe outlet.

This brings me to my central point: Japan’s low engagement scores may not reflect an unmotivated or disengaged workforce in the traditional sense. Instead, they may be shaped by two key factors:

1. A cultural view of work as obligation rather than enjoyment, which makes Western-style engagement metrics feel misaligned.

2. A tendency to express dissatisfaction more strongly when protected by anonymity, which can skew survey data toward the negative.

This isn’t to say engagement surveys have no value. But when interpreting their results—especially in a cross-cultural context—we must be mindful of what’s really being measured and how cultural norms influence the responses. True engagement in Japan may look very different from Western definitions, and if we want to support it effectively, we need to begin by understanding those differences.