Proven Form Archives - understand-culture

Buckets at Tōkaimura

On September 30, 1999, three workers at the JCO plant in Tōkai, Ibaraki Prefecture, were preparing a small batch of nuclear fuel. They had dissolved uranium in stainless steel buckets and tipped the solution into a precipitation tank, with no proper control of the amount. It became Japan’s first criticality accident. Two of the three workers died.

The approved procedure dissolved the uranium in a dissolution tank. Three years earlier, the company had changed its work procedure without permission from the regulators, so that buckets could be used instead. According to a report from Kyoto University, the plant’s own manual allowed the buckets.

Diet Precedents

The House of Councillors explains on its website that the laws and rules for the Diet cannot cover every situation. Where they say nothing, the house follows senrei, precedent. Precedents fill the gaps in the written rules so that proceedings can run smoothly.

The House of Councillors collects them in the Sangiin senreiroku, a record of precedents in 32 chapters. The House of Representatives keeps its own collection, the Shūgiin senreishū. The National Diet Library advises that the written rules must be read together with these collections.

The Vocabulary of Precedent

Shikitari (仕来り): custom handed down from the past. The Daijisen dictionary defines it as an old habit, a usage, a convention. Its examples are shikitari o mamoru, to keep to custom, and shikitari ni shibarareru, to be bound by custom.

Tōshū (踏襲): following in the steps. The business magazine DIME explains it as taking over precedents or policies and doing things the same way. It appears in the phrase zenrei tōshū, following precedent.

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.

Bad Precedentism

At his first press conference as prime minister, on September 16, 2020, Suga Yoshihide made a promise: Gyōsei no tatewari, kitoku ken’eki, soshite ashiki zenrei shugi o uchiyabutte kisei kaikaku o zenryoku de susumemasu. “I will break through the vertical divisions of the administration, vested interests and bad precedentism, and push regulatory reform with all my strength.”

No Track Record, Lower Rank

In 2024, a government document on public procurement from startups, posted by the Cabinet Secretariat, described a problem. Companies are ranked for public tenders by a score. Setsuritsu mamonaku jisseki no nai sutātoappu wa tensū ga hikuku natte shimai, teii no ranku ni nariyasuku, kibo no ōkii nyūsatsu ni sanka ga seigen sarete shimau. “Newly founded startups with no track record get low scores, tend to be ranked low, and are restricted from large tenders.”

A document released in June 2024 on the website of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry added that a startup must bid at a lower price to beat the overall score of A- and B-ranked companies with a track record and capital.

Breaking the Form

Kata ga aru kara katayaburi, kata ga nakereba katanashi. Because there is a form, there can be form-breaking. Without a form, there is only formlessness. The saying plays on two words. Katayaburi, form-breaking, means unconventional. Katanashi, formless, means spoiled or ruined.

The saying is attributed to the kabuki actor Nakamura Kanzaburō XVIII. Its wording varies. A school newsletter in Sapporo quotes the ending as tada no katanashi, mere formlessness. An original source for either version has not been found.

Pointing and Calling

Japanese railway workers point at a signal and call out what they see. The practice, shisa koshō, began with steam locomotive drivers of Japanese National Railways who checked signals this way.

In 1994, the Railway Technical Research Institute tested it. Without pointing or calling, the error rate was 2.38 percent. With both, it was 0.38 percent, about one sixth.

Shu, Ha, Ri

A verse attributed to the tea master Sen no Rikyū reads: Kiku sahō mamori tsukushite yaburu tomo hanaruru tote mo moto o wasuru na. Keep the rules and forms completely. Even when breaking them, even when leaving them, do not forget the root.

The verse is linked to shuhari, the stages of learning a traditional art. Shu is holding to the basics. Ha is adapting them. Ri is developing one’s own way.