Persuasion Archives - understand-culture

Abolishing the Domains

On July 14, 1871, the Meiji government summoned the domain governors who were in Tokyo and issued the edict abolishing the domains, the haihan chiken . The governors who were still in their domains received the same order.

The decision had been settled before. According to the encyclopedia Nihon Daihyakka Zensho, men from Satsuma and Chōshū in the government, among them Saigō Takamori and Kido Takayoshi, agreed on the step in early July and prepared it in secret. Sanjō Sanetomi and Iwakura Tomomi then gave their consent. Another encyclopedia names younger reformers, among them Yamagata Aritomo and Inoue Kaoru, who won over Kido, Ōkubo Toshimichi and a hesitant Saigō.

Decided Before the Meeting

In June 2026, the business site Diamond Online published an article by Sakata Kōki, a partner of the consulting group IGPI. Its title asked why Japanese meetings fail when they start with the conclusion. Kaigi no ba de kimaru yō de ite, jitsu wa kaigi no mae ni kimatte iru. “It looks as if things are decided in the meeting, but in fact they are decided before it.”

Sakata describes the essence of nemawashi as sharing the question in advance, so that everyone concerned can discuss on the same assumptions. He advises against trying to persuade everyone in the meeting. Before the meeting, the question should be shared and the atmosphere prepared.

A Meeting Without Papers

In 2014, the magazine President reported a rule of Toyoda Akio, then president of Toyota. Participants in his Tuesday morning meeting were not allowed to bring materials. He said: Sorera o mitomeru to, jizen ni nemawashi o shite, shiryō o buka ni tsukuraseru koto ni naru tame, jikan ga muda ni nari, nakanaka honne ga tsutawarinikui. “If we allow them, people do nemawashi in advance and have subordinates make materials. Time is wasted, and true opinions are hard to get across.”

Background Before the Conclusion

In 2022, President Online described Toyota’s rules for writing reports. The writer Noji Tsuneyoshi quoted a Toyota executive who had helped create them. A document is written on a single sheet of A3 paper, turned sideways. Bōtō ni kaku no wa ketsuron de wa nai. Mondaiten no haikei setsumei da. “What is written at the start is not the conclusion. It is an explanation of the background of the problem.”

The executive gave the reason. If only the conclusion is written at the start, the reader cannot tell what the document is about. The headline of the article read: “Writing the conclusion first” is something not to do.

Opening, Development, Turn, Conclusion

Kishōtenketsu (起承転結) is a way of building a Chinese poem. The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten explains it with the four-line zekku . The first line is ki , the opening, the second shō , the development, the third ten , the turn, and the fourth ketsu , the conclusion. According to the encyclopedia Nihon Daihyakka Zensho, the structure matured in China around the eighth century.

It appears in Japanese school lessons. A 2021 lesson of the Sapporo board of education for second-year junior high school students explains it this way. The first line begins the poem, the second takes it up and develops it, the third changes the scene, and the fourth brings the whole to a close.

Conclusion First

The HR glossary of the company Kaonavi describes the PREP method, a model for writing and explaining in business. It follows the order Point, Reason, Example, Point: conclusion, reason, example, conclusion.

In 2018, the speech consultant Yano Kaori, an associate professor at Nagasaki University, wrote in President Woman: Yoku kiku kishōtenketsu no junban wa jikeiretsu de ari, kore wa bijinesu de wa NG desu. “The familiar order of kishōtenketsu is chronological, and in business it is not acceptable.”

The Operative Part First

Article 253 of the Code of Civil Procedure lists what a Japanese civil judgment must contain. The list begins with the shubun , the operative part. The facts and the reasons follow.

The facts section must state the claim and the arguments needed to show that the operative part is correct.

Introduction, Break, Haste

Jo-ha-kyū (序破急): introduction, break, haste. In gagaku , the old court music, the word names the three movements of a piece. The Noh master Zeami applied it to the structure of a Noh play and to the order of plays in a day’s program.

The encyclopedia Mypedia notes that Zeami made a structure of five sections the basis of Noh composition: one section for jo , three for ha and one for kyū .

The Pillow

A rakugo performance begins with the makura , the pillow. The storyteller opens with small talk and short jokes before the actual story. In a guide for beginners in the magazine of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, a writer from the National Engei Hall explains: Makura o futte kankyaku no kimochi ga yawaraida tokoro de, hanashika wa hondai ni hairimasu. “When the makura has put the audience at ease, the storyteller enters the main story.”

A Kyoto City guide calls the makura the warm-up before the story. With it, the storyteller finds out what that day’s audience likes.

If I Can Make It

Iketara iku (行けたら行く): I will go if I can. In 2020, the columnist Fukazume quoted a reader from the Kansai region in the women’s weekly Josei Seven: Kotchi de wa “iketara iku” wa kesseki no imi desu. Hontō ni kitara bikkuri shimasu. “Here, ‘I’ll go if I can’ means absence. If someone really comes, we are surprised.”

A 2023 etiquette article on Mynavi News advises against such vague answers. A person who wants to decline, it says, makes a better impression by declining clearly.