Japan - understand-culture

Intrusion into Private Matters

The guideline on power harassment of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare includes a type called ko no shingai, intrusion on the individual. It means going too far into a worker’s private matters. Its examples include monitoring a worker continuously even outside the workplace, and taking photos of a worker’s personal belongings.

Another example is disclosing a worker’s sensitive personal information to other workers without consent, such as sexual orientation, gender identity, medical history or fertility treatment.

Tokyo Sonata

In Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s film Tōkyō Sonata (Tokyo Sonata), released in Japan on September 27, 2008, a father has lost his job in a restructuring but cannot bring himself to tell his family.

At the 61st Cannes Film Festival, the film won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section.

Private Ties at Work

In April 2012, Rengo, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, surveyed 1,000 working people about their ties with others. Of them, 57.5 percent said, fully or partly, that they had someone at work they could consult about private matters. A further question found that 50.8 percent also spent private time with people from work.

Asked whether time with people from work sometimes left them no time of their own, 28.5 percent said this applied to them fully or partly. Among men, the figure was 36.6 percent.

Thank You for Last Night

Kinō wa gochisōsama deshita (昨日はごちそうさまでした): thank you for treating me yesterday. A manners guide in Mynavi News advises adding these words to the greeting the next morning after being treated to a meal or drinks: Ohayō gozaimasu. Kinō wa gochisōsama deshita. Good morning. Thank you for yesterday.

A written thank-you, the guide adds, should go out the same day or, at the latest, the next day.

Year-End and New Year Parties

In October 2026, Tokyo Shoko Research asked companies whether they would hold bōnenkai and shinnenkai, year-end and New Year parties, this season. Of the 5,052 companies that answered, 56.5 percent said they would.

Before the pandemic, according to the same report, about 80 percent of companies held them.

Know Me

The company Sansan runs a system called Know Me. It pays up to 3,000 yen per person for food and drinks when an employee goes out with up to three people from other departments with whom the employee has never drunk before. For lunch, it pays 1,000 yen per person.

Forbes Japan reported the system in 2018.

Aggretsuko

In the anime Aggressive Retsuko, released worldwide by Netflix on April 20, 2018, Retsuko is a red panda who works in the accounting department of the trading company Characterman Shōji. Sanrio, which created the character, writes that she relieves her stress by singing death metal at karaoke on her own.

Japanese media describe her as 25 years old.

The Welcome Party Case

An employee took part in a welcome and farewell party at work at the strong wish of his boss. Afterward, he drove trainees home in a company car and died in a traffic accident.

On July 8, 2016, Japan’s Supreme Court held that the accident had occurred in the course of his work. It noted that the costs of the party had been paid from the employer’s expenses, and that taking the trainees home had been planned as a task for the boss.

The Saitama Teacher Case

A 62-year-old public elementary school teacher in Saitama sued for about 2.42 million yen in overtime pay. On October 1, 2021, the Saitama District Court dismissed the claim. The court said that teachers are expected to carry out their duties by their own independent judgment.

In an added remark, the court questioned the law that pays teachers a fixed allowance instead of overtime. It said the system may no longer fit the reality of schools.