Meetings Archives - understand-culture

Board Meetings with Many Women

On February 3, 2021, Mori Yoshirō, president of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, spoke at an extraordinary meeting of the councillors of the Japanese Olympic Committee. He said: Josei ga takusan haitte iru rijikai wa jikan ga kakarimasu. “Board meetings with many women take a long time.” He also said: Minna wakimaete orarete. “They all know their place.”

The next day, he withdrew the remarks and apologized at a press conference. The remarks were criticized as contempt for women. On February 12, at a joint meeting of the committee’s councillors and directors, he announced that he would resign.

Matching the Beat

Uchiawase (打ち合わせ): a meeting to discuss something in advance. A page of Ritsumeikan University on gagaku, the old court music, explains that the word comes from this music. At certain points in a piece, the wind players start in time with the drums and other instruments. From this, the word came to mean consulting and discussing beforehand.

Closing Clap

Tejime (手締め): a closing clap. The JapanKnowledge dictionary site defines it as many people clapping in rhythm, with a shout, to celebrate that a matter has been settled or achieved. It is also called teuchi. Repeated three times, the clap becomes sanbon jime, which many places treat as the formal version.

Seconds of Silence

In a survey by the company Preply, reported in May 2025, 29,538 people in 21 countries said how long a silence in conversation could last before it felt awkward. Respondents in Japan gave 7.8 seconds. The web marketing site Web Tantōsha Forum, which reported the survey, noted that they could bear a relatively long silence.

Silence After a Presentation

In 2021, the Japanese news site GIGAZINE reported advice from CultureWizard, a consulting firm for intercultural business. When Japanese listeners stay silent after a presentation, the silence can have several meanings. They may oppose the content, they may agree with it, or they may oppose it but not want to say so in public. To avoid guessing, the firm suggests speaking slowly and simply, or asking whether the content was understood.

Elevator and Tatami Room

A business manners page of the meeting room site Kaigishitsu.com explains the seat of honor in other settings. In a Japanese-style room, the seat in front of the tokonoma, the alcove, is the kamiza, the seat of honor. In an elevator, the place in front of the control panel is, as a rule, the masseki, the lowest seat.

Order of Speeches

The guide site All About sets out the order of speeches at a company welcome or farewell party. The opening words come from the person in the highest position. At a farewell party, the toast falls to the direct superior of the guest of honor. At a welcome party, it falls to roughly the third-ranking person. The closing words and the tejime, the closing clap, fall to the second-ranking person.

Rooms at Edo Castle

At Edo Castle, daimyo waited in rooms assigned by the standing of their houses. The Ii family, which could provide the great elder, waited in the Tamari no ma. Lords of houses related to the Tokugawa and former senior councillors could also be ordered there.

Old hereditary vassal houses, the korai fudai, had their seats in the Teikan no ma. Other hereditary vassals waited in the Kari no ma and on the veranda of the Kiku no ma.

Tiers of Dolls

For the Girls’ Festival, families display hina dolls on tiers. A page of the Consulate General of Japan in Atlanta lists them from the top: the imperial couple, the three court ladies who serve at the palace, the five musicians, the two guards known as the Ministers of the Right and the Left, and the servants.

The Minister of the Left is an older man and sits on the viewer’s right. The Minister of the Right is a young man and sits on the viewer’s left.

The Title Holder’s Seat

In a shogi title match, the title holder sits at the kamiza, the seat of honor. In a report on the Ōshō title match, the magazine Bunshun described kamiza no taitoru horudā, the title holder in the seat of honor, Fujii Sōta, leaning forward and gripping his fan.