Jeff, this is the Japanese way to introduce newbies in several situations. Yesterday, a boy moved to my building and he and his parents went door to door introducing himself and giving gifts ; at work, while you are in training period, you have to wear something screaming “ hey, look at me !” . The worst part is when you are called in front of the whole company, have to introduce yourself and then hear your boss demanding your future co workers to be patient and polite with you and you feel that you’re being named incompetent even before showing some work… and that’s the culture here.