To visit an ochaya, a traditional teahouse in Kyoto, a guest needs an introduction from someone the house knows. The custom is called ichigen-san okotowari, no first-time guests. Some teahouses are also homes where young maiko live.
Bills were traditionally settled on credit, twice a year, around Obon and New Year. A guide to Kyoto describes this as credit sales between people who know each other, a system that survives in the teahouses today.
Jizen hōkoku (事前報告): a report to the people concerned before something happens.
Jigo hōkoku (事後報告): a report of the result after something is finished. A Japanese business magazine notes that a report after the fact is often acceptable, but that a report in advance is safer when a deal changes or needs confirmation.
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.
Many Japanese school grounds have a statue of a boy who carries firewood on his back and reads a book as he walks. He is Ninomiya Kinjirō, later known as Ninomiya Sontoku.
The first such statue at a school was put up in 1924 in Toyohashi. In the 1930s and 1940s, schools across the country followed. Many statues were taken for their metal during the Second World War.
A kaikinshō is an award for never missing a day of school or work. Many Japanese schools still give it. Few absences also help in recommendation-based admission to high schools and universities.
A Newsweek Japan article linked this culture to karōshi and suicide from overwork.
Otsukaresama (お疲れ様): an expression that acknowledges another person’s effort. At work, it is also said to a colleague who leaves before others. It can be said to colleagues and to superiors.
Isshōkenmei (一生懸命): with all one’s might. It grew out of the older isshokenmei (一所懸命), which described a medieval warrior who staked his life on a single landholding.