In the Edo period, a merchant house could reward a servant who had worked for it for many years with noren-wake, dividing the shop curtain. The master gave him a share of capital and customers and had him open his own shop. The new shop was allowed to use the same shop name and sign.
Company Songs
The newspaper publisher Nikkei runs a contest for shaka, company songs. Companies and organizations send in videos of their songs, and a public vote and a panel of judges choose the finalists. In 2020, TV Tokyo reported that 174 companies had entered the national contest.
The Vocabulary of Fellowship
Nakama (仲間): people who do something together. The Daijisen dictionary also gives people of the same position or occupation, and things of the same kind. Nakama-hazure (仲間外れ): being left out of the group.
The God of the Bunt
Kawai Masahiro, an infielder for the Yomiuri Giants and later the Chunichi Dragons, became known as bunto no kamisama, the god of the bunt. He has said that in 1989 he gave up his own hitting to concentrate on defense and bunting: “From that year, I threw away batting.”
On August 20, 2003, against Yokohama, he made his 512th sacrifice bunt and passed the world record of Eddie Collins of the Athletics and other teams. By 2006, his total had reached 533.
The Stake That Sticks Out
Deru kui wa utareru (出る杭は打たれる): the stake that sticks out gets hammered. An article on the dictionary site JapanKnowledge explains it: a person with talent who stands out, or a person who acts presumptuously, tends to be resented or criticized by others.
The proverb appears in the Hōjō godaiki of 1641, in older spelling. A later form, deru kugi wa utareru, uses kugi, nail, in place of kui, stake.
Membership-Type Employment
Membāshippu-gata koyō, membership-type employment, is a term used by the labor scholar Hamaguchi Keiichirō, who set it against job-type employment. A journal of the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training describes the membership type: employees are hired without a fixed job or workplace, and the company decides their job and workplace as needed, under its authority over personnel.
One Team
On December 2, 2019, the grand prize of Japan’s annual New Words and Buzzwords Awards went to ONE TEAM. It was the slogan of the national rugby team at the Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan, coached by Jamie Joseph.
Under captain Michael Leitch, the squad of 31 players included 15 players from seven other countries. The team won all four of its pool matches and reached the knockout stage for the first time.
A Tap on the Shoulder
Katatataki (肩たたき): a tap on the shoulder. A quiet suggestion that an employee should retire or resign.
Madogiwa-zoku (窓際族): the window-seat tribe. Since the late 1970s, the term has described middle-aged employees moved to posts with no real work, who sit by the window. Companies used such posts to push people to resign without dismissing them.