At Sukiyabashi Jirō, the Tokyo sushi restaurant of Ono Jirō, an apprentice trains for about ten years before being allowed to make the tamagoyaki, the sweet rolled omelet.
The apprentice Nakazawa Daisuke, who appears in the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, has said in interviews that he made it about 200 times before Jirō accepted one. In the film, he says he cried when Jirō finally said it was good.
Japanese management advice repeats one rule for scolding: not in front of others. An article in President Online says that scolding is basically one-on-one. A career guide by Mynavi Agent says that being scolded in front of others hurts a person’s pride, even when there is a reason for it, and suggests a private room where voices do not carry.
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.
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.
Doryoku wa kanarazu mukuwareru. Moshi mukuwarenai doryoku ga aru no naraba, sore wa mada doryoku to wa yobenai. “Effort is always rewarded. If there is effort that is not rewarded, it cannot yet be called effort.”
Japanese websites often print these words as a saying of the baseball player Ō Sadaharu. The site All About calls it his best-known saying. Neither of the two sites checked here names the occasion or gives an original source, so the attribution is not confirmed.
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.
Kayui tokoro ni te ga todoku (痒い所に手が届く): one’s hand reaches the itchy spot. Care that reaches every small detail, the mark of someone who is attentive.
Ki ga kiku (気が利く): one’s attention works. Noticing even small things, being thoughtful and quick to see what is needed.
The education company Benesse asked mothers what kind of person they hoped their child would become. In Japan, 71 percent answered hito ni meiwaku o kakenai hito, a person who does not cause trouble for others. Newsweek Japan reported the figure in 2019 but did not give the year of the survey.
A Benesse report of 2018 on the lives of young children describes the wish that a child should not cause trouble for others as a traditional value that parents still hold.
In 1967, the Japanese government created an award for outstanding skilled workers, commonly called gendai no meikō, contemporary master craftsmen. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare describes it as honoring workers who have outstanding skill and are regarded as the leading figures in their field. In 2019, it chose 150 recipients.
In kendo, the higher grades require years of training after the grade before. Under the rules of the All Japan Kendo Federation, a candidate for seventh dan must have trained for at least six years after receiving sixth dan. A candidate for eighth dan must have trained for at least ten years after seventh dan and be at least 46 years old.
A Japanese university lecture page puts the pass rate of the eighth-dan examination at one percent or less.