Suzuki Ichirō has declined the People’s Honor Award three times, in 2001, in 2004 and in 2019. In 2001, he said he hoped to receive it once his baseball career was over.
In 2019, after he retired, the government offered it again. He replied: Jinsei no maku o oroshita toki ni itadakeru yō hagemimasu. “I will work hard so that I may receive it when the curtain falls on my life.”
On October 8, 2012, Yamanaka Shin’ya of Kyoto University was named for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He said: Masa ni Nihon to iu kuni ga jushō shita shō da to kanjite imasu. “I feel that this is truly a prize that the country of Japan has won.”
From 2000 to 2005, NHK broadcast the documentary series Purojekuto X: Chōsenshatachi (Project X: The Challengers). Its main characters were unknown Japanese people. It told the hidden stories behind new products, social incidents and giant projects, as “a story of organizations and groups.”
In April 2024, NHK began a new series, Shin Purojekuto X.
Nō aru taka wa tsume o kakusu (能ある鷹は爪を隠す): the able hawk hides its claws. A truly capable person does not needlessly show off that ability.
Minoru hodo kōbe o tareru inaho kana (実るほど頭を垂れる稲穂かな): the more the rice ripens, the lower the ear bows its head. The deeper a person’s learning and virtue, the more modest that person should be.
Tsumaranai mono desu ga (つまらないものですが): it is a trifling thing, but. Said when giving a gift. A dictionary editor notes that tsumaranai here means “nothing special” and expresses humility, so the phrase is not rude.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs answers a common question about speaking to people outside the company. An employee may refer to a superior simply as Tanaka, or as buchō no Tanaka, the manager, Tanaka. To say Tanaka buchō, Manager Tanaka, is inappropriate, because it does not treat the manager as a member of one’s own side. In a formal setting, the employee can also say heisha no buchō, our company’s manager.
Verbs change in the same way. Inside the company, an employee says that the president osshatte imashita, using a respectful verb for “said.” To people outside, the employee says that the president mōshite orimashita, using a humble verb.
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.
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.
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.
Meshitaki sannen, nigiri hachinen: three years cooking the rice, eight years shaping the nigiri. The saying describes the long apprenticeship of a sushi chef.
On October 29, 2015, the entrepreneur Horie Takafumi attacked it on Twitter: “Sushi restaurants that are any good today don’t do such leisurely training. Sense matters more.” The news site J-CAST reported on the dispute that followed.
In Japanese business etiquette, a business card, meishi, plays the role of its owner’s face. It is received with both hands, while looking at the other person and saying chōdai shimasu (I humbly receive it).
Papers are not placed on top of it. Notes are not written on it in front of its owner. A card is taken from a card case, not from a pocket or a wallet.