Japanese managers tend to relish their role as "father" of the group. In
fact, when I was working
in Japan, our shima had a phone on every desk,
but they could only be used for incoming calls or interoffice calls. The shima had only one outside line, which came through my
boss's phone. Any calls from outside
he picked up and then transferred to
the appropriate person. It felt very much like being a 16 year old having one's father monitor one's calls.