Gofun mae kōdō means acting five minutes early. A first-year newsletter from a Japanese junior high school defines it as gathering at the place of an activity five minutes before it begins. It adds that in the adult world, too, the rule is considered “the key to trust.”
The newsletter also does the arithmetic. When one late person delays the start, the time lost is the delay multiplied by the number of people.
The business principles of the Sumitomo group, Eigyō no yōshi, have two articles. The first says that Sumitomo’s business shall value trust, make certainty its rule, and so aim for lasting strength and prosperity.
The second allows the business to grow or shrink as the times change. But it shall never chase furi, floating profit, or act rashly.
For a handwritten rirekisho, the standard Japanese résumé form, the job site doda gives clear advice about mistakes: “Correction tape and correction fluid are absolutely not allowed. Rewrite it from the beginning.”
The career site of Mynavi agrees: “Basically, correcting a résumé is not acceptable. As a rule, rewrite it whenever possible.”
Kōgen reishoku sukunashi jin (巧言令色、鮮し仁): clever words and a pleasing face are seldom found with true virtue. The saying comes from the Analects of Confucius.
In Japanese, kōgen reishoku means to decorate one’s words and put on an agreeable face, without meaning it, in order to flatter others.
In Japan, when a company’s promissory bill is dishonored for the second time within six months of the first, the clearing house suspends its transactions. For two years from that day, the banks in the clearing house may not do business with it.
Noren ni kizu ga tsuku (暖簾に傷がつく): the shop curtain is damaged. The noren is the cloth curtain at a shop’s entrance. The word also means the credit and standing of the shop, built up over many years of business. A damaged noren means that the shop’s credit has been harmed.
In Dazai Osamu’s story Hashire Merosu (Run, Melos!), published in 1940 in the magazine Shinchō, Melos asks for three days to attend his sister’s wedding. He offers his close friend Selinuntius as a hostage. If Melos is not back by sunset on the third day, his friend will be executed in his place.
The story was included in Japanese school textbooks.
Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain), published by Ueda Akinari in 1776, contains the story Kikka no chigiri (The Chrysanthemum Vow). Akana Sōemon promises his friend Samon to return on the day of the Chrysanthemum Festival, the ninth day of the ninth month.
Held captive in his home domain, he cannot leave. On the promised day, he kills himself, and his spirit returns to keep the promise.
Japan’s national curriculum for moral education sets out what elementary school children learn. For the first and second grades, one item reads: Yakusoku ya kimari o mamori, minna ga tsukau mono o taisetsu ni suru. Keep promises and rules, and take care of things that everyone uses.
For the third and fourth grades, it reads: keep promises and the rules of society, and have public spirit.
On November 14, 2017, a Tsukuba Express train left Minami-Nagareyama Station about 20 seconds before its scheduled time. The operating company published an apology: “We deeply apologize for the great inconvenience caused to our customers.”