Processes Archives - understand-culture

Stroke Order

Japanese children learn hitsujun, the order in which the strokes of a character are written. The Ministry of Education’s commentary on the curriculum for writing in the first two grades of elementary school asks pupils to write carefully, “following stroke order.” The standard taught in schools still goes back to a guide published by the Ministry of Education in 1958, the Hitsujun shidō no tebiki.

Writers on the subject point out that stroke order has no single, absolute norm, and that society has no one correct order. Schools still teach the order of the 1958 guide as the standard.

Forms in Judo

In judo, kata are set forms practiced in two roles, tori and uke, and the Kōdōkan asks that both roles be performed. The Kōdōkan writes that kata are something every holder of a dan grade should master, and that they are an important condition in the standards for promotion. A Nippon Budokan guide to judo lists the nage no kata, the forms of throwing, for the second dan.

Going In to Stamp

In spring 2020, Japan was under a state of emergency because of COVID-19. The company SmartHR wrote of hanko shukkin, going to the office in order to stamp a seal on documents. On May 1, 2020, the company Paperlogic surveyed 105 office workers. 44.8 percent said that they had gone to the office at least once, even under the state of emergency, to stamp contracts or ringi approval documents.

Mother and Child Handbook

Under Article 16 of Japan’s Maternal and Child Health Act, a municipality must give a boshi kenkō techō, a maternal and child health handbook, to every woman who notifies it of a pregnancy. Each time she has a health check or receives guidance from a doctor, dentist, midwife or public health nurse, the necessary entries must be made in the handbook.

The handbook began in 1942 as a handbook for expectant and nursing mothers. It became the mother and child handbook in 1948 and took its present name in 1966.

Attendance Stamps

Each summer, Japan Post Insurance distributes rajio taisō shusseki kādo, attendance cards for radio calisthenics, mainly through elementary schools. In 2025, distribution began on June 9. The cards encourage children to get up early during the summer vacation.

In an essay published by the Postal Museum, the writer recalls the morning routine. After the exercises, the pupil from the top grade who led the group stamped the card each child had brought, as sanka no akashi, proof of taking part.

Family Register

Japan’s Ministry of Justice describes the koseki, the family register, in one sentence. It registers and certifies a person’s family relations from birth to death, it is compiled for Japanese nationals, and it is the only system that also certifies Japanese nationality.

The Missing Daily Reports

Units of the Self-Defense Forces in the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan wrote nippō, daily reports. After a disclosure request in October 2016, the Ground Self-Defense Force answered that the reports had already been discarded and did not exist. On March 15, 2017, NHK reported that the reports were still kept within the Ground Self-Defense Force.

On July 28, 2017, the results of a special defense inspection were published. The same day, Defense Minister Inada Tomomi said that she had handed her resignation to Prime Minister Abe Shinzō that morning and that it had been accepted.

Inō Tadataka’s Map

In 1800, at the age of 55, Inō Tadataka began to survey Ezo, today’s Hokkaido. He went on survey after survey, up to the tenth, in 1816. The map of Japan’s coasts, Dai Nihon enkai yochi zenzu, known as the Inō map, was completed in 1821, after his death, and presented to the shogunate.

He is said to have walked about 40,000 kilometers in 17 years to survey the country.

The Annual Health Check

Article 66 of Japan’s Industrial Safety and Health Act requires employers to have a doctor examine their workers. The ordinance under the act sets the rhythm. Workers employed on a continuing basis must receive a periodic health examination once within every year.

In 1954, the National Tokyo First Hospital opened ningen dokku, the human dry dock. It was a new system of health examination for the early detection of adult diseases.

Checking Online Applications by Hand

In 2020, Japan paid the tokubetsu teigaku kyūfukin, a special cash payment of 100,000 yen for the whole population. The application process began on May 1. Some municipalities printed out the online applications and checked them by eye against their own data, or in pairs, with one person reading aloud.

The city of Chōfu in Tokyo began to accept online applications on May 1. On May 15, it announced that it would stop from May 20, because many applications were flawed or duplicated. A government document dated June 5 reported that 51 municipalities had stopped or suspended online applications.