Okosan, piano jōzu ni naraharimashita nā (お子さん、ピアノ上手にならはりましたなぁ): your child has become good at the piano. In Kyoto, this is said to be a neighbor’s way of asking for the playing to stop.
Hiroi ouchi de sodachihatta n ya nē (広いお家で育ちはったんやねぇ): you must have grown up in a big house. Said to mean that a voice is too loud.
The news site J-CAST gave both examples in 2025.
A sample payment reminder in a Japanese accounting guide contains this line: Nao, honjō to ikichigai ni ofurikomi itadaite orimashitara goyōsha negaimasu. If payment has crossed with this letter, please forgive us.
An accounting guide advises that, even when the customer made the mistake, the reminder should not reproach but should politely ask for payment.
In the Consumer Affairs Agency’s basic survey of consumer attitudes for fiscal 2020, 46.4 percent of those who had experienced damage or trouble as consumers said they had not consulted or told anyone.
Japanese marketers use the term sairento kurēmā, silent claimer, for a dissatisfied customer who says nothing.
In a 2006 study of Japanese university students by Ikeuchi Hiromi, about 20 percent had actually voiced a complaint. The rest took no action. A 1999 study by Fujimura found that only about 19 percent of hospital outpatients, 22 percent of inpatients and 29 percent of business hotel guests had complained.
In a 2025 survey by Qualtrics, 1,500 consumers in Japan were asked what they did after a bad experience with a company. Only 10 percent told the company directly. 54 percent told it nothing. 39 percent stopped or cut their buying.
In 2022, Nikkei Research surveyed company employees among Nikkei subscribers about their suppliers. It found large amounts of dissatisfaction and disappointment that had never come to the surface. In the materials supply sector, only 56 percent of those who had felt such disappointment in the past year would contact the supplier to complain.
Ochūgen, the summer gift, thanks someone for their help, so it needs no return gift. If one is sent, an etiquette guide advises that it be of equal value or a little less. A return worth more than the gift received can be taken to mean: please send no more.
To decline openly, the guide suggests saying so in the thank-you letter, with words such as kongo wa okizukai naku, please do not trouble yourself in future.
In 1999, a Toshiba customer put an audio file on his website. It recorded what a Toshiba employee had said to him on the phone.
Toshiba’s vice president apologized fully. He said he had felt from the moment he heard the audio file that the company had to apologize for its employee’s words. On July 19, 1999, Toshiba said it would withdraw its legal petition against the site.
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.