The Japanese government asks business organizations to follow one calendar for hiring university graduates. Company information activities start on March 1, just before the students’ final year. Selection starts on June 1 of the final year. Formal job offers, the naitei, are given from October 1 of that year.
The Domestic Trial
On Sunday, February 14, 2021, Japan’s health minister gave special approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. The approval followed a phase 1 and 2 trial in Japan, planned for 160 healthy adults aged 20 to 85.
Two days later, at the press conference of the minister Kōno Tarō, a reporter’s question noted that the vaccine had been approved even though the number of Japanese in the trial was small.
From Ground to Ridgepole
Two ceremonies mark stages in building a Japanese house. The jichinsai, the ground-calming ceremony, is held before construction begins. It asks the guardian deity for protection.
The jōtōshiki, the ridgepole ceremony, comes in the middle of construction. It is held when the frame is finished and the ridgepole has been set in place, to celebrate that stage.
Completing One’s Own Process
Jikōtei kanketsu (自工程完結): completing one’s own process. At a 2017 quality forum, a Toyota speaker explained the term. It began as the idea of making things without letting defects arise in the production process. The speaker also named a goal: that workers can feel their work helps the customer and the people in the next process, the atokōtei.
Two Stages of Driving School
At a Japanese driving school, the course is split into two stages. In the dai ichi dankai, the first stage, students take classroom and driving lessons. When all of them are done, students take the shūryō kentei, the completion test, and then a written test for the karimenkyo, the provisional license. The test has 50 questions, and 45 correct answers are needed to pass.
Only then does the dai ni dankai, the second stage, begin.
Excuse Me for Going First
Otsukaresama deshita. Osaki ni shitsurei shimasu. Thank you for your hard work. Excuse me for leaving before you. A manners column on All About calls this the standard, safe phrase for leaving work before others. It suggests also asking whether there is anything to help with.
In the tea ceremony, guests also say osaki ni, before you, and dōzo, please go ahead, to one another before drinking.
Waiting for the Toast
At a Japanese drinking party, the glasses are filled first. Everyone waits until each person has a drink. Then someone leads the toast, kanpai, and only then does anyone begin to drink.
Walking to School Together
At many Japanese elementary schools, children walk to school in a group, shūdan tōkō. The city of Kumamoto explains that the group is usually led by a hanchō, a group leader in the fifth or sixth grade.
The city’s advice to families is to leave home early. A child who is late at the meeting place may be left behind.
Lunch Together
In the public schools of the city of Minoh, near Osaka, school lunch, kyūshoku, is eaten in the classroom. The pupils on lunch duty carry the food in and serve it. When everything is ready, everyone sits down, and the meal begins with itadakimasu.
When they have finished, the pupils say gochisōsama deshita to give thanks, and then clear their dishes in turn.
Nobody Leaves at Five-Thirty
In 2018, Business Insider Japan surveyed 488 young employees about overtime. One respondent wrote: Teiji wa 5-ji han da ga, teiji ni kaeru mono nado inai tame hayaku kaerizurai. The working day ends at 5:30, but nobody goes home at 5:30, so it is hard to leave early.
Another wrote that the idea has spread that one should stay at work while others are too busy to go home, even when there is nothing to help with.