Hōrensō means spinach. It is also made of the first syllables of three workplace words: hōkoku (report), renraku (inform) and sōdan (consult).
Around 1982, Yamazaki Tomiji, president of Yamatane Securities, started a “spinach campaign” in his company. His book on it, Hōrensō ga kaisha o tsuyoku suru (Spinach Makes a Company Strong), appeared in 1986. One account says the idea came from his father.
Aizuchi are the short responses a Japanese listener gives while another person speaks. Japanese linguists describe one type as used “without expressing a judgment of yes or no, simply to mean ‘I am listening’ or ‘I understand.'”
A study published at Ochanomizu University sums up the basic function of aizuchi as “a sign that one is listening.”
Ishin denshin (以心伝心): from mind to mind. In Zen Buddhism, passing on the deepest teaching from the heart of the master to the heart of the disciple, without words or writing. In everyday use, understanding each other without words.
Muzukashii desu ne (難しいですね): that is difficult. A common way to refuse a request politely without saying no.
Maemuki ni kentō shimasu (前向きに検討します): we will consider it positively. Sometimes used to avoid an immediate answer or to decline gently. It is not a promise.
Kekkō desu (結構です): that is fine. It can mean acceptance or refusal, depending on the situation.
A study at Hitotsubashi University describes a meeting between Prime Minister Satō Eisaku and President Richard Nixon. Shaking hands, Satō clearly promised Nixon that Japan would restrain its textile exports to the United States by the end of the year. Satō later said that there was no paper, and that he had never promised anything concrete, even orally.
A popular version of the story says that Satō answered zensho shimasu (I will deal with it appropriately), and that Nixon took this as a commitment. No source for that wording was found.
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.
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.