In Japan’s central ministries, the year a career official entered the ministry still matters. Normally, only one member of each entry year becomes administrative vice-minister, the top post in the ministry. The magazine Gendai Business explains that the other members of that year leave the ministry before this happens.
The Stake That Sticks Out
Deru kui wa utareru (出る杭は打たれる): the stake that sticks out gets hammered. An article on the dictionary site JapanKnowledge explains it: a person with talent who stands out, or a person who acts presumptuously, tends to be resented or criticized by others.
The proverb appears in the Hōjō godaiki of 1641, in older spelling. A later form, deru kugi wa utareru, uses kugi, nail, in place of kui, stake.
Drinking with the Boss
Two surveys point in different directions on whether young Japanese employees still want to drink with their colleagues and bosses. In a December 2025 survey of 360 company employees, 66.5 percent of those in their twenties said that they wanted to join such nomikai, drinking parties, or would join when needed.
In a survey of Generation Z by SHIBUYA109 lab., cited by the NLI Research Institute, 66.7 percent said that they were not fond of company drinking parties that include bosses. The report does not give the year of that survey.
Press Clubs
Japanese ministries and other public offices house kisha kurabu, press clubs. The encyclopedia Imidas calls them a system specific to Japan: voluntary organizations of reporters based in government offices. It notes criticism of their exclusiveness, their closed nature and their sense of privilege, and reports that the European Union called for their abolition.
In 2002, the Japan Newspaper Association revised its view of the clubs. It dropped their old description as social bodies and called them open organizations.
Membership-Type Employment
Membāshippu-gata koyō, membership-type employment, is a term used by the labor scholar Hamaguchi Keiichirō, who set it against job-type employment. A journal of the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training describes the membership type: employees are hired without a fixed job or workplace, and the company decides their job and workplace as needed, under its authority over personnel.
Elders of Sumo
In professional sumo, a foreign-born wrestler must acquire Japanese nationality to become a stablemaster. Only wrestlers with Japanese nationality have the right to become an elder, toshiyori.
Stables are also limited in their foreign-born members. Since a revision of the rule in 2010, each stable may have only one wrestler of foreign birth.
School Cliques
Gakubatsu (学閥): a school clique. The dictionary defines it as an exclusive group formed by people from the same school or the same academic school.
In the spring 2023 examination for career-track national civil servants, the University of Tokyo had more successful candidates than any other university, 193. That was 24 fewer than the year before.
Ten Generations in Kyoto
A popular saying holds that a person must live in Kyoto for ten generations to count as a Kyoto person. An essay in the journal of the Japan Society of Plasma Science and Fusion Research repeats it: “It is commonly said, Kyoto ten generations. Unless one has lived in Kyoto for ten generations, one is apparently not a Kyoto person.”
Outsiders, Young People and Fools
Yosomono, wakamono, bakamono: outsiders, young people and fools. The phrase is used in Japanese regional revitalization. At a regional development seminar on February 2, 2011, reported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the speaker said that the presence of outsiders, young people and fools is indispensable.
A 2014 column in the Ryūkyū Shimpō says that outsiders and young people are said to be the ones who break through a stalled situation.
The Vocabulary of Belonging
Soto (外): outside. The Daijisen dictionary also defines it as people or places other than those concerned, an outsider, another person. One of its examples is kimitsu ga soto ni moreru, a secret leaks outside.
Miuchi (身内): followers of the same boss. Also, members of the same organization. A dictionary example: miuchi no fushōji o inpei suru, to cover up a scandal among one’s own.
Haenuki (生え抜き): born and bred. An HR glossary explains a haenuki employee as one hired as a new graduate, not a mid-career hire or an employee on loan from elsewhere.