Episode #105: Nikolaus Boltze, Country Representative, Thyssenkrupp Japan

Nikolaus Boltze is currently the country representative for Thyssenkrupp in Japan. Mr. Boltze first came to Japan in 1972 as a child, while his father was working with the German embassy and was posted to Japan. He attended the German school which was at that time in Ōmori and since that time he has a certain soft spot for Japan. They returned to Japan in the early 80’s and he finished his graduation from high school at the German School in Japan. He returned to Germany for his University in Engineering and military service.

When Mr. Boltze was applying for jobs after university, he came across a Japanese company starting its operations in Europe called Daifuku. The job description listed a variety of initatives, from setting up an office, finding additional staff, reaching out first to new customers in Germany, transferring the products, which had an excellent Japanese design, but make them fit for the European market and so on. This role got him excited as a young engineer without any previous experience as it was much more than just designing the rear back wheel for a Mercedes Benz, which would be the typical start position for a young engineer. He stayed in this role for 5 years and then later took a position at an automotive supplier called Bayer based out Stuttgart and they were looking for a Project Manager. He took this role and spent a year developing a strategy for entering the Japanese market based in Stuttgart. He presented this to the board, and they came back to him and asked him if he was willing to implement his own strategy and go work from Japan. So, he returned to Japan and started looking for an office and a secretary to start Bayer’s work in Japan. He was in this role for about 6 years until 2005.

Mr. Boltze says they have not been too successful in hiring new graduates in Japan. Typically, new graduates in Japan are focused on working for Japanese firms and they also may have some family pressure to work for well-known Japanese companies. They feel they have better success with mid-career employees who have returned to Japan after working in the US, Europe, or Southeast Asia and they don’t feel well suited to the Japanese environment. Mr. Boltze says that female engineers are another of their hiring strengths. Hiring female engineers has been good for the company because a lot of the time women feel more comfortable and less restricted at a global company rather than a Japanese one, Mr. Boltze also says they don’t discriminate based on gender so women may feel more at ease at Thyssenkrupp. Another segment of people they hire are people from other Asian countries such as Korea, Taiwan or Malaysia who have a degree from Japan and are rather well versed with the culture but for work, they may prefer to work for an international firm.

Advice that Mr. Boltze would give to someone new to Japan who is not familiar with the culture would be to understand that Japan is a G7 nation and if you are bringing a novel idea or a new way of doing something, chances are there may already be a Japanese way or a local firm doing this, and it is harder to penetrate that. Ensuring that firms understand that Japan is a unique island nation and there is likely a local way of doing the thing that you are wanting to do in Japan is beneficial. Learning Japanese isn’t going to hurt but on the other side communication is very important. Japanese as a language is vague and not very precise and sometimes communicating in German or English can be more direct, setting clear goals and giving directions to staff may be more beneficial in German or English.