When people think of Japan, one thing often comes to mind: world-class service. Whether you’re at a train station, hotel, or local shop, staff are polite, attentive, and incredibly well-trained. Everything feels smooth, intentional, and full of care, a true reflection of Japan’s famous omotenashi spirit.
But when it comes to digital experiences, things can feel quite different. Booking a service online, navigating a website, or making a payment can often feel confusing or outdated. Compared to international platforms, Japan’s online services sometimes show a surprising gap. This contrast, between Japan’s exceptional hospitality and its online services, often comes up in conversations with designers, product managers, and other professionals in the digital space.
What We Hear from Jobseekers
At Cogs, we work with both international and domestic teams, connecting with designers, researchers, and product experts across industries. From these conversations, a clear pattern emerges about why Japan’s online experience often lags behind global standards.
- Top-down decision making
Japanese companies still operate in deeply hierarchical structures, where seniority often outweighs skill or expertise. As a result, decisions about online products are sometimes led by senior members who may be less connected to digital-native users — making it harder to capture real user perspectives.
- Internal priorities over user needs
A lot of time and energy goes into internal coordination rather than testing and iterating with users. This can slow down product launches and improvements.
- Limited understanding of design
User experience is sometimes treated as “how something looks” rather than “how something works.” This lack of holistic UX thinking can lead to inconsistency and missed opportunities.
- Vendor dependency
Many companies still rely heavily on external IT vendors, often strong in backend development but less experienced in UX or service design, leading to functional but not always user-friendly outcomes.
All of these factors contribute to the visible gap between Japan’s hospitality-driven offline culture and its still-developing online service experience.
Rethinking Roles and Structures
In overseas organizations, dedicated UX teams are common, with clearly defined roles and ownership over the product experience. In contrast, in traditional Japanese companies, designers often wear many hats, doing UX, UI, research, and sometimes even frontend development.
This isn’t necessarily about skill, it’s a structural issue. The way teams are built can limit how deeply design thinking and user research are embedded into the process.
Many jobseekers tell us things like: “I want to work in an environment where UX design is taken seriously, but it’s hard to make that happen in my current company.”
Signs of Change
The good news? Things are shifting. We’re seeing more companies taking bold steps to modernise their approach: Fintech, mobility, and healthtech startups leading digital innovation.
Japanese-born platforms like Mercari setting global benchmarks for product design. Large corporations hiring experienced digital leaders as design partners. These are still early stages, but they’re promising signs that Japan’s digital service landscape is evolving.
What Japan Can Bring to the Digital World
Japan’s biggest strength lies in its attention to detail and deep sense of care — the essence of omotenashi. If these qualities could be translated into the digital realm, Japan could create online experiences that are not just efficient, but also emotionally engaging and uniquely human.
As a recruiter, I see this transformation starting to take shape. Investing in digital experience isn’t just about new tools or systems — it’s about building teams that can carry Japanese hospitality and online services into the next era.
That’s the real opportunity for Japanese companies: to blend the heart of omotenashi with the efficiency and accessibility of digital design.
Looking Ahead
At Cogs, we partner with both local and global clients, supporting teams that are navigating this very transition. Seeing how companies balance tradition with innovation, and people with technology, is one of the most exciting parts of our work.
As Japan continues to evolve its digital landscape, finding the right balance between Japanese hospitality and online services will be key to shaping a more human, seamless, and globally competitive future.
How do you see it in your own country or organisation?
Can hospitality and digital efficiency truly coexist?
Cogs is an executive search and recruitment agency specialising in connecting creative-minded individuals with global career opportunities.
For further reading and resources, check out our blog: Cogs Agency.
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