In July 2021, the yokozuna Hakuhō won the Nagoya tournament, his 45th tournament victory and his first in seven tournaments. He celebrated with repeated fist pumps.
At its meeting on July 19, the Yokozuna Deliberation Council criticized him. Its chairman, Yano Hironori, said: Budō ni sogowanai gattsu pōzu. Dō mite mo migurushii. “A fist pump that does not suit a martial art. However one looks at it, it is unsightly.”
A game of shogi ends when one player admits defeat. The player who judges the game lost says Makemashita, “I have lost,” and bows. This is called tōryō, resigning. The opponent answers Arigatō gozaimashita, “Thank you.” A guide to Japanese culture notes that the winner does not celebrate.
In 2010, the football player Honda Keisuke said openly that he was aiming to win the World Cup. He explained why he said it in public: Kōgen shinai to, yowai jibun ga dondon ōkiku natte shimau. “If I do not declare it, the weak me grows bigger and bigger.” The sports magazine Number put the words biggu mausu, big mouth, in its headline.
In June 2014, during the World Cup in Brazil, the newspaper Nikkan Gendai quoted him: Oretachi wa W-hai de yūshō dekiru. “We can win the World Cup.” It wrote that his big talk had led the team to overrate itself. In May 2014, another player, Ōkubo, said that Honda was taking on the role of the villain.
Deru kui wa utareru (出る杭は打たれる): the stake that sticks out gets hammered. An article on the dictionary site JapanKnowledge explains it: a person with talent who stands out, or a person who acts presumptuously, tends to be resented or criticized by others.
The proverb appears in the Hōjō godaiki of 1641, in older spelling. A later form, deru kugi wa utareru, uses kugi, nail, in place of kui, stake.
In December 2023, Toyota chairman Toyoda Akio spoke about the certification scandal at Daihatsu. He said it came down to how employees are treated every day, and used an English phrase: “There is the phrase Bad News Fast.”
He then described what often happens to it in practice: “People are told, bring me the bad news. I was told that too, long ago. When I actually brought it, I was scolded.”
Gofun mae kōdō means acting five minutes early. A first-year newsletter from a Japanese junior high school defines it as gathering at the place of an activity five minutes before it begins. It adds that in the adult world, too, the rule is considered “the key to trust.”
The newsletter also does the arithmetic. When one late person delays the start, the time lost is the delay multiplied by the number of people.
On April 25, 2005, a JR West train derailed on the Fukuchiyama Line, and 107 people died, 106 passengers and the driver. Earlier in the run, the train had overshot its stopping position at Itami Station by about 72 meters and arrived there about one minute and eight seconds late.
JR West had a practice called nikkin kyōiku, day-shift education. After an incident, a crew member could be moved to day duty and retrained. The Kobe Shimbun calls it punitive training. It writes that the investigators’ report suggests that the driver may have been under pressure from the nikkin kyōiku he had been through.
Shin’yō (信用): trust, credit. The Daijisen dictionary defines it as judging, from a person’s past actions and achievements, that the person can be trusted.
Menboku (面目): face. A person’s standing, position and honor in the eyes of the world and of the people around. The dictionary gives menboku o tamotsu, to keep face, and menboku o tsubusu, to crush face.
Mentsu (面子): face, standing. The dictionary gives mentsu ga tsubureru, face is crushed, and mentsu ni kakawaru, face is at stake.
A Japanese training company’s guide to raising new employees divides reports into two kinds. The shūryō hōkoku, the final report, is required when a task is done. The chūkan hōkoku, the interim report, is made while the work is still in progress, to share how far it has gone or to confirm the method.
The guide says that the interim report lets the person who assigned the work see that it is moving. It can also stop a new employee who is heading in the wrong direction.
Watashi, shippai shinai node. “Because I do not fail.” It is the signature line of Daimon Michiko, a freelance surgeon, in the high-rated television drama Doctor-X, which began in October 2012.
At a premiere event, the lead actress, Yonekura Ryōko, said that the line is actually hard for her to say, because she herself always fails.