The workplace is one of the most important sites of cross-cultural encounters for Japanese working in the Netherlands. Japanese company offices in the Netherlands are generally small in size, numbering less than 100 employees. The decision-making processes in Japanese and Dutch corporate cultures are superficially similar, both relying on achieving consensus from stakeholders and subordinates rather than devolving decision-making authority to a single person. The need for Japanese expatriate middle-managers to refer plans back to headquarters in Japan, in addition to the emphasis on collective responsibility for the results of plans agreed to by consensus, means that decision-making in Japanese companies proceeds more slowly than in Dutch companies. Nevertheless, Dutch employees in Japanese companies perceive the decision-making process as achieving better and more thorough results despite its slow pace. Japanese expatriate employees in the Netherlands put in longer hours than local employees. Dutch employees feel that their Japanese superiors and colleagues put in such long hours because they use their time inefficiently; furthermore, they feel little pressure to adopt those same working hours, asserting that the Japanese managers simply receive more benefits and salary in line with their increased responsibility. However, their Japanese colleagues resent this attitude, feeling that Dutch colleagues "leave work undone on their desk and go home", leaving it for the late-working Japanese to complete. Japanese managers find they have to delineate job requirements and responsibilities more explicitly for Dutch employees than they would for Japanese employees in Japan, due to the local cultural emphasis on individual responsibility above collective responsibility. As of 2000, when eating outside the home, Japanese expatriates in the Netherlands most commonly patronise Chinese restaurants (29% of meals eaten out); Japanese restaurants run a close second at 25%, Italian restaurants at 19%, and French restaurants at 10%. However, they deride the Japanese restaurants of the Netherlands as low-quality and expensive. They also cook Japanese food at home, though in a pattern different from that in Japan; they consume less fish and more meat dishes (especially "nikujaga"), and often have to find substitutes for preferred vegetables which are unavailable locally. Preparing Japanese food is often viewed as troublesome due to these limitations, and many Japanese wives express that they only prepare such dishes because their husbands prefer them; when the husbands are away, they cook Western-style food instead. However, the community in Amsterdam at least have some Japanese-style grocery stores available locally. For the community in Maastricht, fewer such options are available; many cross the border to Germany to do their shopping in Düsseldorf and take advantage of the many specialised grocery shops which have popped up to serve the city's significant Japanese community, or band together and order groceries—especially fish prepared in the Japanese style—to be shipped down from Amsterdam.