Regulatory pressure

“Ohayo gozaimasu Yakuklto desu!” is the new morning greeting of my cube. An interesting transformation has recently occurred in my office space. A related, but separately run division of my employer has relocated its workers to the floor on which my cubicle rests. This displaced many of my coworkers to higher floors, but a few of us remained. It now seems, as one astute coworker pointed out, “like we’re working for a Japanese company.” This is both true and not.

My employer is a Japanese company, in that it was founded and only exists in Japan. The majority of employees, however, are not Japanese (nor is the founder) – they are from everywhere else. In fact, prior to the invasion of the other division my floor of the building had three Japanese employees out of about 18 people. Now, there are six fuzzy little foreigners (myself and two other Americans, a German, an Australian and a Filipino) and a slew of Japanese. This is where the new morning call comes from.

For those unfamiliar with Yakult, allow me to explain briefly. Yakult (pronounced yakulto in Japanese) is a yoghurt based drink. It is promoted as something one should drink daily for health and is sold, quite literally, everywhere. It can be purchased from convenience stores, grocery stores, vending machines (but then again, in Japan, everything is sold in vending machines) and middle-aged women pushing carts or riding bicycles of the stuff around town. A Yakult pusher even tried to entice me with home delivery. There is also a professional Tokyo baseball team owned by Yakult, the Swallows.

Yakult is not something I have had first hand experience with. However, a friend of mine has, and reported that it “went through me like Drano through a sink”. Only faster. He then offered me the rest of the six-pack he had bought. I declined and have not since regretted it.

It does not seem to be something that many non-Japanese become involved in, unlike, say sumo. In Bangkok, Yakult is widely available, again including home delivery, in the areas that are popular with Japanese tourists and residents. Thais, however, seemed pretty indifferent to it, that is, I never saw any evidence that they consumed it.

Yakult is big with Japanese, however, and thus the new morning-call in my office. Daily at 9:30 there comes the high-pitched screech of the Yakult pusher on her morning rounds, like a mocking rendition of they guys that sell peanuts at baseball games: “Good Morning! Yakult!” Perhaps that is really the purpose of the Swallows. Their games are the training grounds for the street pushers.