Trust Archives - Page 2 of 8 - understand-culture

Identity Guarantee

Japan’s Act on Identity Guarantees, Mimoto hoshō ni kansuru hōritsu, dates from 1933. It governs the mimoto hoshō contract, in which a guarantor promises to pay for damage that an employer suffers through the actions of an employee.

A contract without a fixed term runs for three years, or five years for apprentices in commerce and industry. A fixed term may not exceed five years. In setting the guarantor’s liability, a court considers, among other things, whether the employer was at fault in supervising the employee and why the guarantor agreed to give the guarantee.

A Notice to All Residents

A column on the real estate site LIFULL HOME’S advises residents of Japanese apartment buildings not to deal with a noisy neighbor directly. Direct dealings between residents, it says, can cause further trouble. The best way is to go through a third party, such as the management company.

The management company then usually puts up a notice or puts a letter in the mailboxes. A real estate blog adds that the warning is often addressed to all residents, not to one particular resident.

A Meeting Without Papers

In 2014, the magazine President reported a rule of Toyoda Akio, then president of Toyota. Participants in his Tuesday morning meeting were not allowed to bring materials. He said: Sorera o mitomeru to, jizen ni nemawashi o shite, shiryō o buka ni tsukuraseru koto ni naru tame, jikan ga muda ni nari, nakanaka honne ga tsutawarinikui. “If we allow them, people do nemawashi in advance and have subordinates make materials. Time is wasted, and true opinions are hard to get across.”

The Vocabulary of Face

Kao ga tatsu (顔が立つ): the face stands. The Daijisen dictionary defines it as keeping one’s honor in the eyes of the world.

Hana o yuzuru (花を譲る): to yield the flower. In this phrase, hana means honor and credit. The Daijisen dictionary gives the example kōhai ni hana o yuzuru , to yield the honor to a junior.

Use First, Pay Later

Toyama’s medicine sellers leave a box of household medicines with a family. A salesperson visits every six months to a year and collects payment only for the medicines that were used. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes this as the traditional Toyama method, sen’yō kōri , use first and profit after.

The seller keeps a kakebachō , a customer ledger. A magazine of JR West calls it detailed data for managing customers. The magazine Waraku writes that the sellers won the trust and confidence of their customers.

Errand Boy to Head Clerk

In an Edo merchant house, a boy started as a decchi, an apprentice who lived in and ran errands, from around the age of ten. The next stage was tedai, a clerk. After many years, he could become bantō, the head clerk, who took charge of sales, accounts and everything in the shop.

From there, he could be allowed to set up his own shop.

Leaving the Room

The General Council of the Liberal Democratic Party decides by unanimity, as a matter of custom. A 2016 paper by the political scientist Nishikawa Shin’ichi gives examples of how dissent has been handled. In 1974, two dissenting members were asked to leave their seats voluntarily, so that the council could adopt the Japan-China aviation agreement “unanimously.” In 2015, a member who opposed the security bills left before the vote, and the decision counted as unanimous.

On June 28, 2005, the council’s chair, Kuma Akio, broke the custom. He put an amendment to the postal privatization bills to a vote by show of hands.

Not Speaking Their Minds

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.

Teahouse Politics

Machiai seiji (待合政治): teahouse politics. The Heibonsha World Encyclopedia notes that politicians and political merchants used machiai, teahouses for entertaining, so much that the term was coined.

In an interview with President Online, Oharu, the 84-year-old owner of a bar in Akasaka, recalled that in the Shōwa era Akasaka was a town of ryōtei, exclusive restaurants. Each faction of the Liberal Democratic Party had its fixed ryōtei. The Tanaka faction went to Chiyoshin, the Nakasone faction to Nasu. Of these ryōtei, she said: Zenbu naku narimashita. “They are all gone.”

Smoking Room Talk

Tabakomyunikēshon: tobacco communication, the talk among smokers at work. In 2015, Mynavi News asked 500 readers whether it could be done away with. 50.2 percent said yes and 49.8 percent said no.

One reader, a 31-year-old man, said: Kantan na uchiawase wa tabako-beya de yattemasu ne. “We hold simple meetings in the smoking room.” A 30-year-old woman said that work moved forward on the basis of conversations and information shared there.