Information Archives - understand-culture

Fine Among Colleagues

On October 1, 2021, Mitsubishi Electric published the report of an investigation committee of outside lawyers on years of improper inspections at its plants. At a briefing, the committee chair repeated what he had heard at the sites: Kyoten no nakamauchi de wa yoi ga, soto ni wa mono ga iinikui. Among colleagues at the site it is fine, but it is hard to speak to those outside. Some also found it hard to speak to their bosses.

He said that employees at the Kani plant and the Nagasaki Works got along well. In his view, this closeness fed a mindset of kyoten atte kaisha nashi: the site exists, the company does not.

Dutch News Reports

In the Edo period, the shogunate ordered the Dutch in Nagasaki to hand over a summary of news from abroad. From then on, one was submitted each time a Dutch ship arrived. Dutch interpreters translated it into Japanese for the shogunate. These were the Oranda fūsetsugaki, the Dutch reports.

In principle, the shogunate kept this information to itself. In practice, copies were quietly passed on, and the news leaked, above all to the domains of Kyushu.

The Nuclear Village

Genshiryoku mura, the nuclear village, is the mocking name for the industry, government, academics and media bound together by the interests of nuclear power. A paper in a Japanese sociology journal says the term was jargon used inside Tokyo Electric Power, an insiders’ name in the power industry. Another paper uses the same word for the towns that host nuclear plants.

The Diet’s independent commission on the Fukushima accident found that regulator and regulated had traded places. The regulators had become captives of the power companies.

Hidden Christians

During the Edo-period ban on Christianity, the senpuku Kirishitan, hidden Christians, kept their faith within their own communities. They passed on their prayers, the orasho, by word of mouth.

Sources differ on how faithfully this worked. One account says the words were handed down without any change. The Heibonsha World Encyclopedia says that because the prayers went from mouth to ear, many were corrupted.

On June 30, 2018, UNESCO decided to inscribe the Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region on the World Heritage List.

Acting Like a Stranger

Mizukusai (水臭い): watery-smelling. Distant and formal, like a stranger, toward someone close. Tanin gyōgi (他人行儀): behaving like an outsider. A usage example: Onaji chīmu no menbā nan dakara, tanin gyōgi wa yose yo. We are on the same team, so drop the formality.

The Emperor’s Video Message

At 3 p.m. on August 8, 2016, Emperor Akihito spoke to the nation in a video message. He said he was past eighty and fortunately in good health. But considering his gradually declining strength, he worried that it might become difficult to carry out his duties as a symbol with his whole being, as he had until then. He closed by saying that he earnestly hoped for the people’s understanding.

The message did not contain the word taii, abdication. It also avoided speaking concretely about the current imperial system.

Season Words

A saijiki is a book that sorts the kigo, the season words of haiku, by season, with explanations and example poems. A haiku guide in the magazine Gendai Business says that each season word carries its own subtle feeling. Emotion, it advises, should not be put into words directly. It should be expressed through the season word.

Hearing One and Knowing Ten

Sasshi (察し): sensing. The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten defines it as perceiving, being considerate, inferring. Ichi o kiite jū o shiru (一を聞いて十を知る): hear one, know ten. To grasp the whole of a matter after hearing or trying only a little of it.

The Imperial Conference

The gozen kaigi was the conference of government and military leaders held in the presence of the emperor. A Japanese encyclopedia says that its deliberation merely endorsed proposals already decided by the liaison conference of government and military and by the cabinet.

By custom, the emperor only listened to the proceedings. Apart from questions, he did not speak.

Vertical Society

In February 1967, Kōdansha published Nakane Chie’s Tate shakai no ningen kankei (Human Relations in a Vertical Society). It grew out of an article in the May 1964 issue of the magazine Chūō Kōron. The book became a long-seller. One account puts its sales in Japan at 1.17 million copies, another at more than 1.16 million in 124 printings.

Nakane herself said that it is a misunderstanding to read tate, vertical, as top-down command or as a structure of power.