A guideline of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in force since June 1, 2020, defines power harassment at work. Under psychological attacks, its examples include “repeatedly scolding a worker loudly and in an intimidating manner in front of other workers.”
The same guideline lists cases that do not count. One is warning a worker firmly, to a certain degree, after repeated lateness despite warnings.
Iwanu ga hana (言わぬが花): not saying it is the flower. Leaving something unsaid has more charm than saying it.
Kūki o yomu (空気を読む): to read the air. To sense the mood of a situation and act to suit it.
Hito o tateru (人を立てる): to put a person in between. In a negotiation, to let an agent or go-between step in between oneself and the other side. It also means stepping back so that another person keeps face.
Katatataki (肩たたき): a tap on the shoulder. A quiet suggestion that an employee should retire or resign.
Madogiwa-zoku (窓際族): the window-seat tribe. Since the late 1970s, the term has described middle-aged employees moved to posts with no real work, who sit by the window. Companies used such posts to push people to resign without dismissing them.
A bureikō is a banquet held without regard to rank or etiquette. The most famous one in Japanese history was held by Emperor Go-Daigo in the Kamakura period. He used it to gather people of different ranks and plot in secret. One guest told his wife, and the plot leaked.
The same source notes that, in practice, rank does not disappear at a bureikō. Communication at company drinking parties has its own coined word, nominication, from nomu (to drink). It first appeared in the media in the 1980s.
A popular belief holds that when a Kyoto host asks a guest, Bubuzuke demo dō dosu? (How about some rice with tea?), the real message is “Please go home.” The rakugo story Kyō no chazuke plays on the offer. An Osaka merchant is always offered rice with tea by a Kyoto customer’s wife but never served it. One day he arrives at lunchtime, determined to eat it.
The writer Nakamura Kiyoshi calls the “go home” custom an invention.
In 1721, the eighth shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune, had a meyasubako, a box for written petitions, set up in front of the shogunate’s council chamber at Edo Castle. The Koishikawa infirmary and the fire prevention system of Edo are said to have come from petitions placed in the box.
The final episode of the drama Hanzawa Naoki in September 2013 had an average rating of 42.2 percent in the Kanto region. It was the highest rating of the Heisei era, from 1989 onward, for a drama on commercial television.
In the climax, the banker Hanzawa forces his superior Ōwada to kneel before him in a dogeza, the deepest bow of apology.
A poem by Matsuo Bashō reads: Mono ieba kuchibiru samushi aki no kaze. When I speak, my lips feel cold in the autumn wind.
It appears in Bashō-an kobunko with a motto to keep at one’s side: Hito no tan o iu koto nakare. Ono ga chō o toku koto nakare. “Do not speak of the faults of others. Do not boast of your own strengths.”
A shimatsusho is a written apology and reflection on a mistake, submitted promptly after trouble occurs.
A tenmatsusho is a different document. It reports the full course of events. It is generally an internal document, usually addressed to supervisors or the management department, and is submitted after the matter is resolved.
On November 10, 2003, Japan’s National Personnel Authority issued guidelines on publishing disciplinary actions against national public employees. A notice gives an outline of the case, the penalty and its date, and the person’s department, rank and similar details.
As a rule, the notice is written so that the individual cannot be identified.