Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's I had a rapidly growing IT and outsourcing business called LINC Computer. We were pretty much the first foreign-run IT company in Japan specifically servicing other foreign firms, and since we started business in 1987, our timing turned out to be well synched to the growth of the financial services bubble in the late 1980's.

Some years ago in my first IT business, LINC Computer, we had a situation where the company was growing quickly, but the pressure of the growth was starting to have a negative effect on the team. People were becoming stressed out, tired, irritable, unpredictable, selfish, uncommunicative, bullying or submissive, and increasingly unresponsive to their clients. While it wasn't a total melt down, the resignations of several key people made me realize as the CEO something needed to be done.

Most successful businesses start out with a pioneering person with an idea along with the tenacity and will power needed to build it into a viable business. With the following generation of work, it is highly likely that on occasion things will become difficult, and the business founder may need to bring in a family member or two as a means to reduce costs or gain control over a specific function (i.e., the accounting). Doing this can be tricky, since it upsets the power balance between owners and senior management, but since it is usually free labor and the business founder can focus on sales knowing that someone they trust is minding the fort, means that short periods of spousal assistance can indeed rescue a floundering firm.

One of the basics of starting your own business is that you don't bring your spouse into it. The possibilities for dysfunction both in the office and at home far exceed those couples with successful business partnerships. And yet, the pressures of keeping costs down and having someone you can rely on serving as your backstop are often too tempting to pass up.

I recently ran into an old friend of mine, a successful Japanese businessman, who introduced me to an attractive lady he was working with and from his body language whom he was obviously comfortable with. He introduced her as the CEO of one of his group companies and I couldn't help wondering how that relationship got started. In any case, she in turn introduced herself, giving her name, then shyly nodded towards my friend and said, "By the way, I'm his wife."

Today I will cover some of the anomalous holiday policies that govern our working lives in Japan.

Apart from your regular holiday allowance, while they are not legally required to do so, most Japanese companies also give employees 'Compassionate Leave', meaning paid and unpaid leave for life events, celebratory or otherwise. Clearly many of the following events really are once-in-a-lifetime, and you seldom hear of a company trying to block them.

If you've ever wondered what the rules are for holidays in Japan, look no further. I will try to give a run down on what's normal and what the labor law says. As always, with articles like this, I encourage you to use the material as a guideline only, and seek proper legal advice before acting.

The easy part of networking as a foreigner in Japan is getting together with people of similar backgrounds and cultures, and mixing for social reasons as much as business. Many of us do this without thinking, and without realizing that we're missing the best part of being in Japan - and that is the chance to mix with our Japanese colleagues. After all, associations and clubs are THE glue that holds Japanese business together and which allows CEOs and others to find new opportunities in this face-to-face culture.

"It's not what you know, it's who you know," is an old refrain that works well in Japan for job hunting. As I've written before, employers will often take on someone who is not ideally suited for a position but who appears to have the right temperament and basic skills - so long as they can get to know them first and feel comfortable about taking the extra risk. The problem for the job hunter then, is how do you meet these employers?