What Surprises Non-Japanese While Living in Japan? (5): Umbrella Pilfering
Umbrella Pilfering The Japanese are famous for their honesty. Over the years, foreign visitors have been amazed at how wallets have been left in very public places – restaurants and restrooms – and they have been returned with its content completely intact. There is one exception to the impressive honesty of the Japanese – how […]
What is “Ochugen”? What is“Oseibo”? What Surprises Non-Japanese While Living in Japan? (4): Culture of Giving a Gift
Culture of Giving a Gift: “Ochugen” and “Oseibo” In Japan at midsummer, gifts are exchanged between companies or individuals. These gifts are called “ochugen.” This practice traces back to the custom of sharing with relatives and neighbors one’s offerings to the souls of family ancestors during “bon” (the Buddhist souls’ day festival). Nowadays, however, it […]
What Surprises Non-Japanese While Living in Japan? (3): Slippers Culture
(3) Culture of Slippers Japanese are sometimes amused when foreigners make cultural faux pas, but when it comes to mistakes about changing shoes, some people get genuinely upset. The need to change shoes is not specifically a religious practice and performed in other countries. However in Japan, the Shinto belief of frowning upon impurities is […]
What Surprises Non-Japanese While Living in Japan? (2): diagnose personality by blood type
There is a tendency to diagnose personality by blood type in Japan. “Before coming to Japan, I had no idea what my blood type was,” says Christine, a 21-year-old Swiss woman studying at a Japanese university. “But time and time again, Japanese friends would look so disappointed when I said I didn’t know. Finally, I […]
What Surprises Non-Japanese While Living in Japan? (1)
Heated bidet toilets and convenient store rice balls top the list of Japanese things foreign residents love about this country. “The toilets freaked me out at first. But now I’ve looked into bringing those seats home with me. It’s too bad though American bathrooms don’t have electric outlets in the right places,” says Jeremy, an […]
Who is the decision maker in a Japanese company? What is “Senpai” and “Kohai”?
Who is the decision maker in a Japanese company? What is “Senpai” and “Kohai”? “Senpai” and “Kohai”: Japanese-style hierarchy within a company In Japanese companies, ranking is based primarily on age and length of service. Things are changing, but most Japanese multinationals follow the traditional lifetime employment model for their elite employees. New hires enter […]
Shiseido’s Eudermine
Shiseido Eudermine When speaking of a representative cosmetics manufacturer in Japan, the first one that probably comes to most people’s minds is Shiseido. Shiseido was early to promote sales in China and other foreign countries and has now become a proud Japanese brand throughout the world. Did you know that the cosmetic product that Shiseido […]
Japanese Factory Robot with AI technology (video 2)
It selects and picks up only the triangle-shaped objects that are placed randomly and rearranges them neatly. Like a lunch box, it is used to arrange food on a tray.
Useful Japanese word (5): 手締め（てじめ） “tejime”
“Tejime” “Tejime” means closing with handclapping. It is a sort of ceremony marking the successful end of an important activity. But nowadays it is commonly done at the end of a casual drinking session with your coworkers or bosses. All of the participants do a series of claps in unison. Variations include ippon-jime, in which […]
Japanese Factory Robot with AI technology (video 1)
Robots are appearing in human workplaces. There are concerns that combined AI and robotics services will take over human jobs, but the race to develop robots and AI continues amid the coronavirus pandemic. What can Japanese robots do?