2441 Remote Work vs. In-Person: The Small Stones of Communication

 

Since joining my current company, which is originally based in France, I've been working remotely in Tokyo. Most of our team is located in the Kansai region, so this arrangement offers me the flexibility to balance work and family life. Being a foreign company, we have flexible working hours, which has been a huge benefit for me. It has significantly reduced my daily commute, allowing me to contribute more at home—whether it’s preparing a bath, cleaning, or handling other tasks that my spouse has been doing for the past 20 years.

Despite working remotely, I visit the Kansai office a couple of days each month. While these visits are often scheduled for specific tasks, I find that their real value lies in the in-person communication with my team. We usually communicate virtually, but nothing compares to face-to-face interaction. In yesterday’s Cross Border Link (CBL) session, a simple yet profound analogy was introduced:

「靴の中の小石」
"When there’s a small stone in your shoe, you can’t jump, run, or move freely. Once you take off the shoe and remove the stone, you realize how tiny it was, yet for the person wearing the shoe, that little stone becomes a big problem."

This analogy perfectly illustrates why in-person communication is essential for problem-solving. Often, the bottlenecks we face are small, like that little stone, but they can feel overwhelming, and people hesitate to address them. When I was in Kansai for just two days, we made significant progress on a number of issues, all thanks to real, spontaneous conversations that wouldn’t have been as effective virtually. I always wonder if I should spend more time in the Kansai office, even on an extended basis, to maintain these crucial touchpoints. After a discussion with my supervisor today, we agreed that regular visits will help keep communication flowing.

We have countless tools for virtual meetings—Zoom, Webex, Google Meet—but they still fall short when it comes to replicating live interaction. Could the Metaverse be the solution? I haven’t tried Apple’s Vision Pro yet, but maybe technology like this will one day bridge the gap between virtual and real-world communication. Perhaps the era of no business trips is just around the corner.