In January 2024, Persol Research and Consulting surveyed full-time employees aged 20 to 64 online. As reported by the news site TECH+, 41.6 percent said that they did not speak their true feelings at all in one-on-one meetings with their supervisor. In team meetings, the figure was 43.0 percent.
Unable to Speak Up
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.
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.
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.
The Vocabulary of Hidden Intent
Menjū fukuhai (面従腹背): obedient in the face, opposed in the belly. To appear to obey while resisting inwardly.
Hara ni ichimotsu (腹に一物): one thing in the belly. To have a hidden scheme in one’s mind.
Anonymous Verses
In the eighth month of 1334, an anonymous text was posted on the riverbank at Nijō in Kyoto. It opens: Konogoro miyako ni hayaru mono, youchi, gōtō, nise rinji. What is in fashion in the capital these days: night raids, robbery, forged imperial orders. It mocks the disorder under the new Kenmu government. Its only surviving copy is in the Kenmu nenkanki.
In 1853, a comic verse is said to have mocked the arrival of Perry’s ships: Taihei no nemuri o samasu jōkisen, tatta shihai de yoru mo nerarezu. Jōkisen, a fine tea, wakes us from the sleep of peace. Just four cups, and no sleep at night. Jōkisen sounds like the word for steamship.
Salaryman Senryū
Since 1987, the life insurer Dai-ichi Life has invited the public to send in senryū, short comic verses, about life as an office worker. The 28th contest received 40,138 entries. A verse from 1998 reads: Kosuto daun sakebu anta ga kosuto daka. The one shouting for cost cuts is the one who costs too much.
The first-place verse of 2020 reads: Kaisha e wa kuru na to jōshi, ike to tsuma. My boss says do not come to the office. My wife says go.
Public Stance and True Feelings
Tatemae (建前): the principle one officially stands by. The outward view. A dictionary gives the example Ano hito wa tatemae to honne ga mattaku chigau, that person’s public stance and true feelings are completely different.
Honne (本音): one’s true thoughts or feelings, as opposed to what one says in public for the sake of harmony.
Deru kui wa utareru (出る杭は打たれる): the stake that sticks out gets hammered. A person who stands out or oversteps tends to be resented and criticized by others.
Grass Pillow
Natsume Sōseki’s novel Kusamakura (Grass Pillow) appeared in September 1906 in the magazine Shin Shōsetsu. It opens: Chi ni hatarakeba kado ga tatsu. Jō ni sao saseba nagasareru. Ikiji o tōseba kyūkutsu da. Tokaku ni hito no yo wa suminikui.
“Work by reason, and corners stick out. Pole along on feeling, and the current sweeps one away. Insist on one’s own will, and life grows cramped. In any case, the world of people is hard to live in.”
Party Without Rank
A bureikō is a banquet held without regard to rank or etiquette. The most famous one in Japanese history was held by Emperor Go-Daigo in the Kamakura period. He used it to gather people of different ranks and plot in secret. One guest told his wife, and the plot leaked.
The same source notes that, in practice, rank does not disappear at a bureikō. Communication at company drinking parties has its own coined word, nominication, from nomu (to drink). It first appeared in the media in the 1980s.