Yakult’s home delivery by women, the Yakult Ladies, began in 1963. In Kōriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, one Yakult Lady started bringing drinks at her own expense to elderly people who lived alone.
Since 1972, Yakult has continued this as ai no hōmon katsudō, visits of love. Its 2017 report counts about 41,000 elderly people living alone who were visited.
A business etiquette guide advises an employee who is being transferred to visit clients together with the successor. This makes the handover smoother and reassures the clients. Some also give a thank-you gift, such as individually wrapped sweets worth 2,000 to 3,000 yen. Only when a visit is impossible is an email acceptable.
Every year on December 13, the geiko and maiko of Gion in Kyoto walk in a line to the teachers of their arts and to the teahouses that look after them. They bring kagami mochi, round rice cakes, and thank them for the year. The custom is called kotohajime.
On August 1, called hassaku, they make another round in black formal kimono. Bowing, they say otanomōshimasu, we ask for your favor.
A business etiquette guide explains what to do when the president or the contact person of a client dies. The first step is to gather the facts calmly, report to one’s superior and follow instructions.
Business contacts now tend to attend only the wake. A condolence telegram should reach the funeral hall on the day of the wake, or at the latest before the funeral begins.
In December 2025, the credit research firm Tokyo Shoko Research published a survey of companies on New Year cards for 2026. Only 36.0 percent said they would send them. Another 11.3 percent had sent cards the year before but would not send them for 2026.
The survey also found that companies that keep sending them use New Year cards as one tool of communication.
A Japanese etiquette article says that good manners call for a suitable temiyage, a gift carried by hand, when visiting an important customer or business partner. A secretary in the article thinks about where and when the gift will be handed over, how long it will be carried and when it will be eaten. She pays attention to its size, its wrapping paper and its weight, and usually chooses Western or Japanese sweets.
Irasshaimase (いらっしゃいませ): welcome. Said to customers as they come into a shop.
Kashikomarimashita (かしこまりました): I have respectfully understood. The humble way to accept a customer’s request.
Shōshō omachi kudasaimase (少々お待ちくださいませ): please wait a moment. The customer service manual of the city of Ikoma lists all three among its basic phrases, each said with a 30-degree bow.
Heiso wa kakubetsu no ohikitate o tamawari atsuku onrei mōshiagemasu (平素は格別のお引き立てを賜り厚く御礼申し上げます): we deeply thank you for your exceptional patronage at all times. A standard opening line of a Japanese business letter.
Kisha masumasu goseiei no koto to oyorokobi mōshiagemasu (貴社ますますご清栄のこととお慶び申し上げます): we rejoice in the ever-growing prosperity of your company. Another set phrase for the same place.
The customer service manuals of the city of Ikoma and of Gifu Prefecture define three bows. Eshaku, the light bow, tilts the upper body about 15 degrees forward from the waist. Keirei, the standard bow, tilts it about 30 degrees. Saikeirei, the deepest bow, tilts it about 45 degrees.
In September 2013, a customer at the Naebo store of the clothing chain Shimamura in Sapporo made a female employee kneel in dogeza, the deepest bow of apology. She posted a photo of it on Twitter. On September 21, the image spread widely.
On October 7, after the employee reported the harm to the police, the customer was arrested on suspicion of kyōyō, coercion.