Weddings of Japanese Staff

One of the staff who work for me is Japanese. The young lady is going back to Japan in a few months to get married.

What is the correct protocol here, should I go round and with an informal "good luck/ / happy wedding" card, or is it not even right for me as a manager to do this for Japanese staff.

I'm after this from a japanese perspective, not a European one.

Well, if you're after a japanese perspective, apparently she should be inviting you to her wedding. You're her boss, and that's the custom here in Japan. In some conservative organizations, the manager would take her for a tour around the office and imply that she's quitting the job to engage in her new life with her husband!

If it were in Japan, and a boss was not invited to the wedding, then I suppose a casual word of "Congratulations" is the norm. A manager would owe no cards nor gifts, but it's not that the manager shouldn't give them. It would be a nice gesture to show you care. However, if the bride receives a gift, it is expected that she gives a small gift in return.

If it's customary in your country to send cards or gifts, I'm sure she knows the custom and would feel awkward if she ends up to be the only person not receiving them.

I know you asked for a Japanese point of view, but I think that most Japanese people who live abroad expect, and probably even hope, to be treated like the other people in the company. For some reason people from other countries seem to think that with the Japanese in particular they need to walk on eggshells and follow Japanese etiquette even outside Japan.

As a foreigner in Japan I am not happy to be treated differently from the other staff in the office I work in. There is no reason not to treat your Japanese staff member exactly as you would any of your other staff. If you would give other staff members a card, then give her one, as there is no reason not to.

Actually the Japanese boss at my company, even if he does not attend the wedding, usually gives a large sum of money as a present to staff members who get married- usually at least the equivalent of $1,000 US. I imagine you don't want to follow that custom!

As far as I know, most Japanese people who live abroad and work in branches of Japanese companies follow the custom of the country they live in. For example, if they live in Singapore, they live Singaporean style, and if they live in Germany, they live German style. For this reason, a lot of them have a hard time adjusting back when they return to Japan :)