Kiwi joins in office prayers

Press, 8 February 1986, Page 30

Kiwi joins in office prayers

NZJN Tokyo Little did Palmerston North-born Peter Hobman imagine before he took over a dairy products company in Japan that he would be starting each morning’s work with a Buddhist prayer. Mr Hobman, aged 37, is in Japan to bring New Zealand’s advanced dairy technology to Nippon Proteins, Ltd, a joint venture between the New Zealand Dairy Board and Nisseikyo. The joint venture has close contacts with giant Japanese dairy companies such as Meiji, Snow and Morinaga. The “company Is known

for its adherence to Buddhist practices in the workplace. Its Japanese staff even have four-hour prayer sessions there — but Mr Hobman does not join in. It even has had a Buddhist priest on its payroll for 40 years. Believing in Buddhist tenets is no prerequisite for success with Nippon Proteins, Ltd, Mr Hobman says, but joining in the short religious ceremonies is. He sees the five-minute morning prayer before work as a group activity, which is important for harmonious relations in Japanese companies — and in Japan’s social

structure. The prayer sessions brings employees to-, gether, he says and prepares everyone for work days that last up to 12 hours. An honours graduate in biotechnology, Mr Hobman is introducing New Zealand methods into the company’s laboratories. The company produces caseinate for sausages and whey protein concentrates for processed ham. Japan is New Zealand’s biggest and increasingly vital market for dairy proteins, as it uses whey protein concentrate. New Zealanders must do more research and development, Mr Hobman

says, and push hard into overseas markets, particularly Japan. But he urges New Zealanders planning to do business in Japan to study the language before they leave. He had only 15 hours of Japanese lessons before he left in March 1984, and found his inability to communicate a big obstacle to his work.

He had told himself on arrival in Tokyo that he would not try to enforce his ways on the Japanese, but found it hard to resist

The Japanese preference for group activity, for example, sorely tested his resolution. It made it difficult to assign and attribute responsibilities, es-

pecially for one coming from New Zealand, where one person is responsible for each job.

While Mr Hobman has been working in a Japanese company, he and his wife have met few fellow New Zealanders. His wife, Susie, at first found life in Japan trying, but has since become an expert at ikebana.

The couple are persisting in a project Mr Hobman feels is important to the New Zealand dairy industry — more so now when it faces fierce competition from the E.E.C. and United States dumping their dairy products. 1 Copyright, N.Z. Japan _ , News. ’