Japan, Information - understand-culture

The Vocabulary of Belonging

Soto (外): outside. The Daijisen dictionary also defines it as people or places other than those concerned, an outsider, another person. One of its examples is kimitsu ga soto ni moreru, a secret leaks outside.

Miuchi (身内): followers of the same boss. Also, members of the same organization. A dictionary example: miuchi no fushōji o inpei suru, to cover up a scandal among one’s own.

Haenuki (生え抜き): born and bred. An HR glossary explains a haenuki employee as one hired as a new graduate, not a mid-career hire or an employee on loan from elsewhere.

Inferring the Wishes of Others

Sontaku (忖度) means to infer what is in another person’s mind. In 2017, it shared the grand prize of the annual buzzword award, the Shingo Ryūkōgo Taishō, with insuta-bae, looking good on Instagram.

For the award, the word stood for the Moritomo and Kake Gakuen issues, in which officials were said to have anticipated the wishes of the prime minister’s office. Testifying in the Diet, the chairman of the Moritomo Gakuen school operator said: Sontaku shita no deshō. They probably showed sontaku. The prize was accepted by the president of a company that sold sontaku manjū, sweet buns.

Reading the Air

Kūki o yomu (空気を読む): reading the air. The Daijisen dictionary defines it as inferring the situation from the atmosphere of a place, and especially judging what one should and should not do, and what others want and do not want.

In 2007, the abbreviation KY, for kūki yomenai, “cannot read the air,” was among the nominees for the year’s buzzword award, the Shingo Ryūkōgo Taishō.

Stealing the Skill

In Japanese kitchens and workshops, newcomers are told waza o nusume, steal the skill. The expert does not walk the newcomer through the know-how step by step. He keeps working where the newcomer can watch, and expects the newcomer to master the skill over a long time. Cooks, craftsmen and technicians are among the trades that train this way. Sushi chefs say meshitaki sannen, nigiri hachinen: three years cooking rice, eight years shaping sushi.

In 2023, a debate on social media asked whether the method is outdated. A worker in the shipping industry wrote that those who say it do not teach because they have no theory of teaching.

Questions Sent Ahead

Before a Diet committee session, members send their questions to the ministries. This is called shitsumon tsūkoku, question notice. Officials then write the minister’s answers. In a 2025 survey by the Cabinet Personnel Bureau, half of the questions arrived two days or more before the session. Nearly all the rest arrived by 6 p.m. the day before.

On average, officials could start writing at 6:32 p.m. and finished the answers at 1:48 a.m.

Public Stance and True Feelings

Tatemae (建前): the principle one officially stands by. The outward view. A dictionary gives the example Ano hito wa tatemae to honne ga mattaku chigau, that person’s public stance and true feelings are completely different.

Honne (本音): one’s true thoughts or feelings, as opposed to what one says in public for the sake of harmony.

Deru kui wa utareru (出る杭は打たれる): the stake that sticks out gets hammered. A person who stands out or oversteps tends to be resented and criticized by others.

Prior Review by the Party

Before the Japanese cabinet approves a government bill, the bill is first approved inside the governing Liberal Democratic Party. This is the jizen shinsa-sei, the prior review system.

The usual view dates it to a letter of 1962 from Akagi Munenori, chairman of the party’s General Council, to Chief Cabinet Secretary Ōhira Masayoshi. One study argues that it began in 1955, when the party was founded and approval by its Policy Research Council became a condition for a cabinet decision on a bill.

The Vice-Ministers’ Meeting

Until 2009, the top civil servants of the ministries, the administrative vice-ministers, met on the day before each cabinet meeting, normally twice a week. They met to settle the items for the cabinet, such as bills, cabinet orders and appointments.

On September 17, 2009, the day after the Democratic Party of Japan government took office, the meeting held its last session, to confirm its own abolition. In 2012, the Abe cabinet renamed an existing liaison meeting of the ministries the Vice-Ministers’ Liaison Meeting.

Diet Affairs Committees

In the Japanese Diet, it is common practice for the handling of business to be decided in negotiations between the parties’ Diet Affairs Committees, the kokkai taisaku iinkai. At important moments, the committee chairs of the parties meet to settle it.

The Managing Directors’ Meeting

Many large Japanese companies have a jōmukai, a meeting of the managing directors. Unlike the board of directors and the shareholders’ meeting, it is not required by law.

Japanese encyclopedias describe it as the place where matters that the board will formally decide are discussed in substance. There, nearly all important management decisions are made.