The ojigi hanko, the bowing seal, is a personal seal stamped at a slant on a document, so that it leans toward the seal of the superior beside it. A business guide by Money Forward calls it one of the business manners that some companies treat as a rule.
Its origin is uncertain. A writer in the magazine President says that, by one account, a department of a major city bank made it a rule, and the rule spread as a rumor. He adds that even this is not certain.
Japanese job-hunting guides tell candidates how many times to knock on the door of the interview room. The career site Rikunabi says that three knocks are usual. According to the news site ITmedia, a manners instructor advises three or four knocks, because some people associate two knocks with checking whether a toilet is occupied. The instructor says that the origin of the rule is unclear.
Hisho kentei, the Secretary Skills Test, is run by a public interest foundation, the Practical Skills Testing Association, with the support of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. It tests business manners, etiquette and general knowledge. Its grades run from third grade up to first grade. In 2019, 11,858 people took the third grade, 25,629 the second grade, 4,515 the pre-first grade and 1,044 the first grade.
The Ogasawara school of etiquette, Ogasawara-ryū, traces its beginning to the invitation of its founder to teach archery and horsemanship to Minamoto no Yoritomo. Later heads of the school served the shoguns of the Muromachi and Edo periods. In 2022, a Japanese government publication introduced Ogasawara Kiyotada as the thirty-first head of the school.
A formal Japanese letter follows a fixed frame. When it opens with a tōgo, an opening word such as haikei, it should, as a rule, close with a ketsugo, a closing word such as keigu. A Mynavi guide calls this the principle.
In a business letter, the opening word is followed by a seasonal greeting and then the body. One sample greeting in the guide begins kunpū no kō, in the season of the fragrant breeze.
Rei ni hajimari rei ni owaru: it begins with courtesy and ends with courtesy. The phrase is used for judo and kendo. A judo article says that the etiquette of judo is fixed, and that its rules of etiquette go back to bushidō.
The All Japan Kendo Federation’s guidebook for junior high school kendo teams uses a longer form: Rei ni hajimari, rei o motte okonai, rei ni owaru. It begins with courtesy, is carried out with courtesy and ends with courtesy.
For a handwritten rirekisho, the standard Japanese résumé form, the job site doda gives clear advice about mistakes: “Correction tape and correction fluid are absolutely not allowed. Rewrite it from the beginning.”
The career site of Mynavi agrees: “Basically, correcting a résumé is not acceptable. As a rule, rewrite it whenever possible.”
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.
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.
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.