meetings Archives - understand-culture

Decided Before the Meeting

In June 2026, the business site Diamond Online published an article by Sakata Kōki, a partner of the consulting group IGPI. Its title asked why Japanese meetings fail when they start with the conclusion. Kaigi no ba de kimaru yō de ite, jitsu wa kaigi no mae ni kimatte iru. “It looks as if things are decided in the meeting, but in fact they are decided before it.”

Sakata describes the essence of nemawashi as sharing the question in advance, so that everyone concerned can discuss on the same assumptions. He advises against trying to persuade everyone in the meeting. Before the meeting, the question should be shared and the atmosphere prepared.

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.”

Minutes as Training

The business site Money Forward Bizpedia explains why taking the minutes, the gijiroku, is given to new employees. First, minutes contain the basics of business writing. Second, writing them deepens the writer’s understanding of the work. The article’s title reads: “Nobody will call you a newcomer anymore! Four tips for writing minutes.”

Meetings in Doubt

In a 2025 survey by tldx Solutions, reported by Web Tantōsha Forum, 88.9 percent of 1,000 respondents aged 20 to 69 said that they had doubted whether they needed to attend a meeting. In a 2024 survey by the company Acall of 600 employees, the share of meetings felt to be truly necessary averaged 39.1 percent.

Nemawashi in the Right Order

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.

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.

The Order of Introductions

Japanese business manners fix who is introduced to whom first. The person closer to oneself comes first: Jisha no hito to okyakusama nara, ika naru toki demo jisha no hito ga saki desu. Between one’s own colleague and a client, one’s own colleague is always introduced first.

Between people of the same closeness, position, title and age decide. The person of lower standing is introduced first.

Seat of Honor

The most senior person is shown to the kamiza, the seat of honor. In a meeting room with chairs on both sides of a central table, it is the seat farthest from the door.

The order applies in a taxi too. The seat of honor is directly behind the driver, followed by the seat behind the front passenger and then the middle of the back seat.

Shanshan Meetings

A shanshan sōkai is a shareholders’ meeting that ends in a short time, with no real discussion and no questions.

A Japanese legal journal writes that shareholders’ meetings were once called shanshan meetings, and that obtaining a valid resolution, free of defects, in a short time was considered desirable. A money magazine adds that at the time, a shanshan meeting was considered a good shareholders’ meeting.

Morning Meeting

In a 2019 internet survey by NEXER, 37.5 percent of respondents said that their workplace holds chōrei, a morning meeting, every day. One former employee recalled one-minute speeches, sharing the day’s schedule and radio calisthenics.