Japan, Persuasion - understand-culture

The Group of Five

In April 2000, Prime Minister Obuchi Keizō suffered a stroke. According to Kamei Shizuka, Chief Cabinet Secretary Aoki Mikio, now acting prime minister, called four other leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party to a meeting late at night: Mori Yoshirō, Nonaka Hiromu, Murakami Masakuni and Kamei himself. They became known as the gonin-gumi, the group of five. Newsweek Japan recalls that the media of the time accused the five of settling the next prime minister among themselves.

On April 5, a meeting of the party’s members of both houses, held in place of a party convention, elected Mori president unanimously. The first Mori cabinet took office the same day.

Teahouse Politics

Machiai seiji (待合政治): teahouse politics. The Heibonsha World Encyclopedia notes that politicians and political merchants used machiai, teahouses for entertaining, so much that the term was coined.

In an interview with President Online, Oharu, the 84-year-old owner of a bar in Akasaka, recalled that in the Shōwa era Akasaka was a town of ryōtei, exclusive restaurants. Each faction of the Liberal Democratic Party had its fixed ryōtei. The Tanaka faction went to Chiyoshin, the Nakasone faction to Nasu. Of these ryōtei, she said: Zenbu naku narimashita. “They are all gone.”

Nemawashi in the Right Order

A Japanese HR dictionary explains nemawashi with an example. An employee who takes a matter first to the company president, not to the direct superior, is sent back to discuss it with the superior. The superior may feel that his position was ignored, and approval can become harder.

For a meeting with many participants, the dictionary advises informing those concerned beforehand. The decision then goes smoothly.

Waigaya

Honda describes waigaya as a culture of its own. People discuss dreams or what their work should be, nenrei ya shokui ni torawarezu, without regard to age or position. The name imitates the sound of a noisy discussion.

Honda adds that waigaya is not a place for compromise and adjustment in order to reach agreement. It is a place to clash opinions in earnest, honki de honne de, and create new value.

Show Them, Tell Them

Yatte mise, itte kikasete, sasete mite, homete yaraneba, hito wa ugokaji. Show them how, tell them, let them try, and praise them. Otherwise people will not move.

A publication of the city of Hamura attributes the saying to Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, commander of the Combined Fleet. The magazine Bungeishunjū calls it a well-known maxim for leaders, used in management training. Neither names an original document, and their wording differs slightly.

The Vocabulary of Speaking Up

Sashidegamashii yō desu ga (差し出がましいようですが): it may be forward of me, but. A cushion phrase before offering advice that may overstep. Sen’etsu nagara (僭越ながら): presumptuous as it is. Used when stating an opinion in front of superiors.

Gyaku pawahara (逆パワハラ): reverse power harassment. Harassment of a boss by subordinates.

Sony the Guinea Pig

In 1958, a weekly magazine wrote that large companies now made more transistors than Sony, the company that had developed them. “So Sony is the guinea pig of the large companies.” One account attributes a similar jibe, casting Sony as Toshiba’s guinea pig, to the critic Ōya Sōichi in Shūkan Asahi. His own wording is not confirmed.

Sony was angry at being compared to a laboratory animal. Some years later, its founder Ibuka Masaru is reported to have said in an interview that there were still many things to create. If opening them up one by one and turning them into products was the guinea pig spirit, then the guinea pig spirit was a fine thing too. Employees gave him a golden guinea pig.

Challenge at Toshiba

In July 2015, a third-party committee published its report on Toshiba’s accounting. According to press reports of its findings, the president had shown the heads of the company’s divisions profit targets called charenji, challenge, and had pressed them hard to meet them.

The committee found that at Toshiba “there was a corporate culture in which one could not go against the wishes of one’s superiors.”

The Vocabulary of Rank

Tsuru no hitokoe (鶴の一声): the single cry of the crane. One word from an important person settles a matter at once.

Nagai mono ni wa makarero (長いものには巻かれろ): let oneself be wrapped by the long thing. It is better to follow the powerful than to resist them.

Opening and Closing Words

A formal Japanese letter follows a fixed frame. When it opens with a tōgo, an opening word such as haikei, it should, as a rule, close with a ketsugo, a closing word such as keigu. A Mynavi guide calls this the principle.

In a business letter, the opening word is followed by a seasonal greeting and then the body. One sample greeting in the guide begins kunpū no kō, in the season of the fragrant breeze.