The business site Money Forward Bizpedia explains why taking the minutes, the gijiroku, is given to new employees. First, minutes contain the basics of business writing. Second, writing them deepens the writer’s understanding of the work. The article’s title reads: “Nobody will call you a newcomer anymore! Four tips for writing minutes.”
The Party Organizer
Zatsuyō wa yarimasen. “I don’t do odd jobs.” A first-year employee said this when asked to be the kanji, the organizer, of the year-end party, according to a headline in Toyo Keizai in December 2025. The employee added that the job should go to the general affairs staff. The section chief, at a trading company, was left speechless.
The author, Yokoyama Nobuhiro, writes that when the section chief was young, he had thought organizing was the newcomer’s job. He had even seen it as a chance to be valued by his seniors. Yokoyama calls the organizer’s role the best opportunity to train dandori-ryoku, the skill of preparation.
Serving Tea
The Shogakukan site Kufura asked 200 working women in their twenties to forties which chores at work they felt fell mostly to women. J-CAST News, reporting the survey in 2020, listed ochadashi, serving tea, in first place. The examples given included tea for visitors and the morning coffee for bosses and sales staff.
The Vocabulary of Errands
Ochakumi (お茶汲み): serving tea, especially at a company.
Kaban-mochi (かばん持ち): a bag carrier. Someone who carries the bag for another. Also a private secretary, or a flunky who follows a person of high rank everywhere.
Zatsuyō (雑用): odd jobs. Small tasks that need to be done but are not one’s main duties.
Warming the Sandals
One winter day, according to a famous story, the warlord Oda Nobunaga went outside and found that his sandals were missing. He asked Saru, Monkey, as he called his young servant, where they were. The servant took them out of his robe and said that he had warmed them. The servant later became Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the ruler of Japan.
The story first appears in Ehon Taikōki, a popular illustrated biography. The magazine Waraku notes that no other source has it, so it cannot be called true.
Attendants
In a sumo stable, the stablemaster assigns young wrestlers of makushita rank and below to each sekitori, a wrestler of the top two divisions. They serve him as tsukebito, attendants.
The number has no fixed rule. A jūryō wrestler is said to have one or two attendants, a makuuchi wrestler two or three, an ōzeki three or four, and a yokozuna seven to ten.
Tea Backstage
A zenza is an apprentice rakugo storyteller. On stage, the zenza turns the mekuri, the card that shows the name of the next performer. He folds the masters’ haori jackets and kimono.
He takes particular care over serving tea. One storyteller recalled for Gendai Business: Mazu shishōgata ga irasshattara ocha o dasu. Kimono ni kigae owattara ocha o dasu. Kōza ga owattara ocha o dasu. When the masters arrive, serve tea. When they have changed into kimono, serve tea. When they come off the stage, serve tea.
Pouring for Others
At a Japanese company dinner, drinks are poured by others, a custom called oshaku. A business guide in Mynavi News explains that the person of lower standing generally pours for the person of higher standing. The pouring goes around in order, beginning with the guest of honor and the most senior seats.
A personal finance site notes that there was a culture in which tejaku, letting a superior pour his own drink, was considered rude.
Cleaning Before Work
A future employee wrote to a Japanese personal finance site before starting work in April. The company had told the writer about a rule: new employees come to work early in the morning and clean.
The site answered with the definition of working time from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Working time is any time under the employer’s direction, whether the direction is stated or implied. Early cleaning that the company directs, even tacitly, counts as working time and must be paid, even if no rule is written down.
Three Cups of Tea
A well-known story tells how Ishida Mitsunari entered the service of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi stopped at a temple and asked for tea. A temple boy first served a cup almost full of lukewarm tea. Hideyoshi asked for more. The boy served less tea, a little hotter. The third time, he served a small amount of quite hot tea in a small cup. Hideyoshi was impressed by the boy’s attentiveness and asked the abbot for him.
The story is known as sanken no cha, the three offerings of tea. It first appears in Bushō kanjōki, published in 1716, and was later retold in Ehon Taikōki and Meishō genkōroku. It is most likely a later invention.