Kawai Masahiro, an infielder for the Yomiuri Giants and later the Chunichi Dragons, became known as bunto no kamisama, the god of the bunt. He has said that in 1989 he gave up his own hitting to concentrate on defense and bunting: “From that year, I threw away batting.”
On August 20, 2003, against Yokohama, he made his 512th sacrifice bunt and passed the world record of Eddie Collins of the Athletics and other teams. By 2006, his total had reached 533.
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.
Okagesama de (お陰様で): thanks to you. A Japanese explainer notes that it carries the meaning: “I could not have done it alone, but I was able to do it thanks to you.”
Ichigan (一丸): one lump. The Daijisen dictionary defines it as a single mass with one heart. Its example: zen’in ichigan to natte nankyoku o kirinukeru, everyone becomes one to get through a crisis.
On the evening of October 6, 2015, Kajita Takaaki of the University of Tokyo spoke to the press after being named for the Nobel Prize in Physics. He said: Watashi no namae wa dashite itadaita ga, Sūpā Kamiokande, soshite Kamiokande no kenkyū gurūpu ga mitomerareta no da to omou. “My name was put forward, but I think it is the research groups of Super-Kamiokande and Kamiokande that were recognized.”
Kaizen (改善): improvement. The Daijisen dictionary defines it as correcting what is bad and making it better. It adds that the word is known around the world as a symbol of Toyota’s production system.
Yokoten (横展開): horizontal deployment. A business glossary defines it as taking a case that succeeded in one department or business, with the know-how and technology gained from it, and applying it to other departments or fields.
In February 1967, Kōdansha published Nakane Chie’s Tate shakai no ningen kankei (Human Relations in a Vertical Society). It grew out of an article in the May 1964 issue of the magazine Chūō Kōron. The book became a long-seller. One account puts its sales in Japan at 1.17 million copies, another at more than 1.16 million in 124 printings.
Nakane herself said that it is a misunderstanding to read tate, vertical, as top-down command or as a structure of power.
In a report dated August 1, 2022, a special investigation committee described how Hino Motors had falsified engine certification data. Its summary says that developers could not speak up to say that fuel economy needed further improvement. They could not tell developers in other departments that the earlier figures had been inflated. At one development meeting, the fact that fuel economy fell far short of its target was not reported.
The news site Kuruma News summed up the problem in one phrase: ue ni mono ga ienai, unable to speak to those above.
Yamada Akio, founder of the company Mirai Kōgyō, said: Uchi ni wa hōrensō wa nai. We have no hōrensō. He did not mean the vegetable, he added, but the abbreviation for reporting, informing and consulting with a boss.
At his company, he said, even in product development the person in charge decides alone and finishes the product alone. He criticized today’s control-minded management, in which bosses do not trust employees, meddle in every detail and treat them like children.
In a sumo stable, the wrestlers eat around low round tables, a few at a time. They eat in the order of the banzuke, the ranking list, from the top down. The meal is served by wrestlers of low rank.
The Ajinomoto Foundation for Dietary Culture described these customs in its exhibition Sumō to shoku, Sumo and Food.
On October 14, 2011, the board of the camera maker Olympus dismissed its British president, Michael Woodford. Chairman Kikukawa gave the reason: soshiki no ishi kettei o mushi shita dokudan sen’ō-teki na keiei, a dictatorial management that ignored the organization’s decision-making.
Woodford said that he had been dismissed for asking questions about past acquisitions. According to J-CAST News, he was not allowed to speak at the board meeting that removed him.