Ossharareru combines two honorific forms of the verb “to say”: the respectful verb ossharu and the respectful ending -rareru. It is called nijū keigo, double honorific language. A business etiquette guide says that piling up honorific forms creates this mistake, and does not make speech more polite.
The guide corrects Ashita no kaigi wa nanji kara to ossharare mashita ka? to osshaimashita ka? “What time did you say tomorrow’s meeting starts?”
Senpai (先輩): a person who entered the same school or workplace earlier. Also a person above oneself in age, position or experience.
Kōhai (後輩): the opposite of senpai.
Tameguchi (ため口): a younger person speaking to an older person as an equal.
In July 2012, the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission of the Diet published its report. In the English version, its chairman Kurokawa Kiyoshi wrote that this “was a disaster ‘Made in Japan.'” Among the causes, he named “our reflexive obedience; our reluctance to question authority.”
The historian Naoko Shimazu pointed out in the Guardian that the Japanese original contains no such explanation. According to a Japanese blogger who compared the two versions, the Japanese preface blames structures instead, such as one-party rule, seniority pay and lifetime employment.
At Muji, the retailer run by Ryohin Keikaku, everyone is called by name with san. This applies to men and women, to subordinates and to superiors alike.
Business magazines report that more and more companies ask employees to address superiors with san instead of their job titles, regardless of position, age or year of entry.
In a 1992 survey by the Prime Minister’s Office, 93.7 percent of respondents said that keigo is necessary.
In a recent survey by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, 54.4 percent said that keigo should be valued as traditional, beautiful Japanese with rich expression. 32.7 percent said that, to suit a new era, it should be simple and easy to understand.
The most senior person is shown to the kamiza, the seat of honor. In a meeting room with chairs on both sides of a central table, it is the seat farthest from the door.
The order applies in a taxi too. The seat of honor is directly behind the driver, followed by the seat behind the front passenger and then the middle of the back seat.
In the Diet, ministers often answer with a set phrase: kotae o sashihikaeru, to refrain from answering. A researcher at Ritsumeikan University counted 16 versions of the phrase in the Diet records. They appeared 7 times in 1970 and 580 times at the peak, in 2018.
According to Kyodo News, Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide gave such answers 67 times in the budget committees of both houses in the session that closed on December 5, 2020. These figures come from a written question by an opposition member, who criticized such answers as refusals to explain.
Japanese companies reject job applicants in set phrases. A typical message reads: Makoto ni zannen nagara, konkai wa go-kitai ni soenai kekka to narimashita. We are very sorry, but this time the result does not meet your expectations. It almost always ends with a line such as Kongo no katsuyaku o oinori itashimasu, we pray for your success in the future.
Job seekers call these messages oinori mēru, prayer emails.
In 1989, the publisher Kōbunsha brought out “NO” to ieru Nihon (The Japan That Can Say No) by the politician Ishihara Shintarō and Morita Akio of Sony. Newsweek Japan calls it a million seller.
The title implies that saying no did not come easily to Japan.
Sakura Sōgorō was a village headman of the early Edo period. According to the legend, he appealed directly to the shogun against his lord’s heavy taxes, and he was executed for it.
In 1851, his story was staged at the Nakamura-za theater in Edo as the play Higashiyama Sakura Sōshi. He became the best-known gimin, a man who gave his life for the people. Little about him is historically certain, and some have argued that he never existed.