DENSO reviews

The company has struggled to reward overachievers financially. Good people stay while great people leave (for more money, title, career path). There is a bamboo ceiling which some will try to break through, but in truth, most Sr Managers or Directors just live with. The Japanese tolerate submissive American managers because the latter don't challenge for the key executive positions held temporarily by Japanese expats. The resulting managerial complacency & incompetency is really sad to see at such a good company. Working with Japanese customers or product teams in Japan will kill your work-life balance simply because of the time zone difference and the daily coordination with Japan required to do a good job. The company tolerates weak performers. Pay is at or below market but that is for job security in down-times. IT is really behind the times because the Japanese mothership is slow to invest in new technologies for workers White collar productivity is really low for a company with such state of the art manufacturing capabilities.

Management have NO concept of personal time. When you are hired, you surrender your personal time. Working 24hrs multiple times a week is not an issue to management. Zero risk taking, very hard to bring in a new tool to use. Can't move up if you do not know to speak Japanese or served time in Japan. No matter how much cost saving ideas you promote; Management is very skillful to shooting each down, many are unmotivated, stopped bringing new ideas, found a corner to hide and get paid. Japanese mentality, "work hard, not smart".