---
title: Who decides in the Japan entity when the boss is away
description: After the Batavia wrecked in 1629, a junior merchant filled the vacuum the officers left; over a hundred died. A vacuum picks who steps forward, not who fits.
image: https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/covers-2026-10/who-decides-when-the-boss-is-away-cover-en-2026-10.png
---

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en)

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[日本語](https://nobusato.jp/ja/blog/who-decides-when-the-boss-is-away)[English](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/who-decides-when-the-boss-is-away)[中文](https://nobusato.jp/zh/blog/who-decides-when-the-boss-is-away)

Launching in Japan

In this article

1. [1629, an island with no water](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/who-decides-when-the-boss-is-away#s1)
2. [A vacuum selects for who steps forward, not who fits](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/who-decides-when-the-boss-is-away#s2)
3. [What to settle before the boss leaves](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/who-decides-when-the-boss-is-away#s3)

[Launching in Japan](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/tag/launching-in-japan)

# Who decides in the Japan entity when the boss is away

If nobody is named, the vacuum is filled by whoever moves first, or by a pile on a desk

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)5 min read

Contents3

1. [1629, an island with no water](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/who-decides-when-the-boss-is-away#s1)
2. [A vacuum selects for who steps forward, not who fits](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/who-decides-when-the-boss-is-away#s2)
3. [What to settle before the boss leaves](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/who-decides-when-the-boss-is-away#s3)

The country manager spends two weeks at HQ. In those two weeks three things happen in the Tokyo office. A customer demands an urgent contract change. An employee resigns. A letter of inquiry arrives from the labour inspection office. Who handles them? The org chart doesn't say. So the most impatient salesperson agrees to the customer's change himself. Nobody picks up the resignation, and the employee simply leaves. The inspector's letter sits on a desk for two weeks.

That's a small power vacuum. I want to describe a large one, because at that size you can actually see how it works.

## 1629, an island with no water

In 1629 the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia struck a reef off the west coast of Australia. About two hundred people survived on islands with no fresh water and little food. The captain and the senior merchant took a small boat to Java to seek help, and left no clear arrangement for command.

The vacuum was filled by Jeronimus Cornelisz, a junior merchant on his first voyage with no formal authority on board. He placed his associates in key positions, made everyone swear loyalty, sent likely opponents to other islets to "look for water", and then began killing. More than a hundred died. Among the same survivors, a soldier named Wiebbe Hayes, sent away on one of those water-finding errands, actually found water and organised some twenty people on another island. They divided the work, made weapons, built a low wall, and repelled at least three of Cornelisz's attacks until the rescue ship arrived.

In 2026 a historical case study in the Asian Journal of Business Ethics mapped Cornelisz onto the modern checklist for corporate psychopathy, found he fit nearly every item, and called the episode a natural experiment in leadership. Same crisis, two men, opposite outcomes. I'd hold back on the diagnosis itself. Reaching a psychological conclusion about one man across four centuries rests on thin evidence, and a single case can't carry general laws. But one thing the story shows clearly needs no psychology at all.

If nobody is named, the vacuum is filled by whoever moves first, or by a pile on a desk

Three things that happened in the Tokyo office while the country manager spent two weeks at HQ (the article’s example)

What happenedWhat filled the gapWrite down before leaving

Customerdemanded an urgent contract change

→

The most impatient salesperson agreed to it himself

→

Name a deputy: “these categories are decided by A”

Employeeresigned

→

Nobody picked it up, and the employee left

→

The deputy takes it and tells you what was decided

Inspectorsent a letter of inquiry

→

It sat on a desk for two weeks

→

Write “wait” as a decision, and reply: “the manager is back on X and will answer that day”

On the Batavia, too, the vacuum picked whoever stood up first, not whoever was fit. Before you leave, write down who decides what, and what waits.

Figure 1. In two weeks without its country manager, the Tokyo office let a salesperson approve a contract change alone, lost a resigning employee and left an inspector’s letter unanswered, so the deputy and the list of things that wait must be written down before the manager leaves.

## A vacuum selects for who steps forward, not who fits

Cornelisz rose less because of who he was than because nobody had been named. Power vacuums fill by self-selection. Whoever wants it, moves fast, and dares to say "follow me now" gets it. That filter barely overlaps with "who is suited". Hayes was plainly better suited. He was also the one sent away, and his leadership only grew on another island, where nobody competed with him for it.

Back to the Japan entity. While the manager is away for two weeks, the vacuum fills just the same, only more quietly. The most impatient salesperson may decide on his own. The person closest to HQ may become the default messenger and, over time, the default approver. Or nobody decides and everything waits two weeks. None of the three was your choice.

One feature of Japanese offices makes this harder to see. Almost nobody will say out loud "I'm in charge now". The vacuum is not seized by one person. It is filled by a pile of small, separate decisions, and when the manager returns the rules have shifted slightly and nobody can say who shifted them.

## What to settle before the boss leaves

Name a deputy, in writing, and tell everyone. "Call me if anything comes up" isn't enough. Say "while I'm away, these three categories are decided by A, these two wait for me, this one goes straight to HQ". Japanese companies call this shokumu daikō, acting authority, and it is often already in the work rules and approval-authority regulations of established firms. New entities usually haven't written it.

The deputy need not be the number two. In the spirit of [scoring the role](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/score-the-role-before-the-person?hsLang=en), the deputy role asks for three things: willingness to decide in your absence, telling you what was decided, and not hiding mistakes. None of this correlates with sales rank. It correlates a little with the person's place in [the network you can't see on the org chart](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/people-not-on-the-org-chart?hsLang=en).

Write "wait" down as a decision too. Some matters really should wait for the manager. Say so explicitly, and say who tells the other party "we will respond on the Xth". An inspector's letter unanswered for two weeks and a prompt reply that the manager returns on the Xth and will answer that day are two entirely different events.

The last point is for HQ. If the Japan entity has one manager and no deputy, don't let that manager be away for more than a week. It isn't that you can't trust the team. You just don't control how the vacuum fills. The Batavia's officers also expected to be back soon.

References

- [Nautilus: Is This the First Corporate Psychopath? (on Boddy, C. R., Asian Journal of Business Ethics, 2026)](https://nautil.us/is-this-the-first-corporate-psychopath-1286033/)

The level above this, who holds the authority to stop revenue, is in [CoDMON Shut Everything Down Before the PHP Patch Landed](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/codmon-shutdown-before-the-patch?hsLang=en).

Author

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)

Launching in Japan, starting with people and systems. I write about building organizations, sales teams and technology organizations in Japan, in English, Japanese and Chinese.

[Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)[Contact](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en)

## Read next

1. 01[Don't staff the Japan entity to exactly enough](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/dont-staff-the-japan-entity-to-exactly-enough?hsLang=en)5 min
   
   In a simulation, ant colonies with idle workers outlasted those at full tilt. Replacing one person in Japan takes six ...
2. 02[Before HQ monitors the Japan team through software](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/before-hq-monitors-the-japan-team-remotely?hsLang=en)5 min
   
   A meta-analysis of 23,000 people found no link between monitoring and performance. Before HQ installs software to watch ...
3. 03[How to investigate a harassment complaint in a Japan entity](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/how-to-investigate-a-harassment-complaint-in-japan?hsLang=en)7 min
   
   Japanese law requires prompt fact-finding and hearing both sides. In one pending case the sanction was oral and the ...

[Column guide: Launching in Japan](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/guide-launching-in-japan?hsLang=en) · [Glossary](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/glossary?hsLang=en) · [The method behind the articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method?hsLang=en)

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