Red and yellow lanterns hang from dusty walls and terrace ceilings along busy streets surrounding Blok M Square in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, famously dubbed Jakarta’s Little Tokyo.

The area is home to lines of restaurants and entertainment venues designed with Japanese-inspired wooden structures and sliding doors. Upon stepping feet inside any of these establishments, customers are greeted with “irasshaimase”, a Japanese welcome phrase.

For the waitresses in jam-packed meat-and-steak restaurant Daitokyo Sakaba, the typical phrase has not only become a part of their daily routine, but it has also influenced their work ethic regarding omotenashi (Japanese hospitality culture of offering the best services).

Juwairiah Prihatini, a senior waitress in the restaurant, said that since she first joined the team at the age of 17 after graduating from high school, she had learned many lessons. Among those was the importance of punctuality and precision while working in such an environment.

“The Japanese do not like slow work. If the boss is briefing you, you must focus and really listen, and then immediately carry out the orders with attention to detail. That is something that may make you weary at first, but then you realize it helps you grow in life,” said the 29-year-old.

While busy directing visitors who came that day into small booths walled with wooden fences, Juwairiah took the time to describe the place, saying that all workers there, from cashiers to waitresses and the chefs, were local people hired by a Japanese whom employees called Daise-san.

“Even the daily operational work is managed by an Indonesian, the boss’ right-hand man named Pak Sarwan, who also helps train the chefs. We all really learn lots of things from the Japanese from scratch,” she added.

Sarwan said he had worked for the expat since 1989 with Daise-san’s parents who were at that time running a cafe and bar business named Don Jurin, a brand that still exists in Little Tokyo.

“In 1995, Okamura-san and Sumiko-san founded Kira Kira Ginza in the same area with special dishes of noodle soups udon and ramen. It was passed down to his son Daise-san later in 2003,” Sarwan recalled.

Throughout the years, Sarwan served the family’s growing restaurant business, which continuously evolved with different concepts in Little Tokyo.

Working under the aegis of the Japanese for about three decades, Sarwan emphasized that some of the striking principles that he had been fortunate enough to learn were responsibility, honesty and most noticeably cleanliness.

“Not only that we must wash ingredients, especially vegetables, with super clean water. We must also uphold the cleanliness of our body, such as hands should always be clean, fingernails and mustaches should be cut short,” said Sarwan.

Meanwhile, for Tujiman Agung, 55-year-old senior chef at sushi and sashimi restaurant Honoka on nearby Jl. Panglima Polim Raya, valued the way he had started from the bottom at a Japanese restaurant back in 1995.

“I worked as a janitor who cleaned the floor and the dishes at first, then step by step, I became a self-taught chef. Learning from the ground, no matter at what stage your career might be, can teach you a lot on commitment and resilience,” said Tujiman.

“We have our own customs, but there are always common values in cultural assimilation that we should respect. Although the employees are all locals, we learn much from the Japanese visitors, most of whom are bosses who own factories in Cikarang [West Java].”

As businesses initially sprouted up in Little Tokyo in the 1990s, it became a hangout spot for young people and, since then, as Agung observed, the area has never been quiet, with dozens of new restaurants added in the early 2000s.

Tujiman claimed that although some Japanese eateries in surrounding areas had recently been replaced by modern fast food restaurants, those in Little Tokyo continued to flourish, developing even further after the Jakarta MRT started operations earlier this year.

After all, Little Tokyo invites attention — it was developed largely with cultural events in mind. Each year, there is an annual Japanese festival held by local enthusiasts called Ennichisai, where young people dress up for cosplay, wearing elaborate costumes and outfits.

Japanese culture researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Ranny Rastati, said the existence of Japanese workplaces contributed to at least three principles that one could learn by being in such an environment, namely kaizen, bushido and gambaru.

When a company implemented kaizen (change for the better), Ranny said, it helped prevent mistakes and fostered major innovations. The concept, she added, was often linked to personal productivity and habits such as arriving to work early.

“When Japan lost World War II, the economy was in a mess. But the society was persistent and disciplined at work and, in less than 20 years, Japan managed to enter a golden era with rapid industrial growth,” said Ranny.

Bushido was a knight-like form of work ethic about honesty, respect and loyalty, she explained, adding that it went hand-in-hand with gambaru, a concept about doing one’s best and fighting until “the last drop of blood”.

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