Nominication (Drinking Communication)

Definition:

“Nominication” is a coined term, “Nomi”(drink) + “communication”. It refers to alcohol drinking. Nominication is not a party or drinking with friends, it is “after work drinking with co-workers and clients” among Shakaijin (Social man = working adults). It is believed to facilitate communication, make understanding of each other, create better relationship among co-workers and clients. Today, pressure of drinking and entertainment, listening boss’s complaints make people think “nominication” is a waste of time and worthless, and in some companies “nominication” is no longer valuable and not mandatory. However, to tell you the truth, still many companies, “nominication” is valued and in many cases mandatory to attend especially new employees.

List of Nominication(parties) in Japanese companies in general.

These parties are usually held by the company except “welcoming” and “farewell” parties. If your team’s or department’s human resources are unstable, there are these “nominication” every month. If your boss or clients love to go out and drink, you might have painful “nominication” every week. If you are uncomfortable with drinking environment, you might need find a job or company do not require you to join in “nominication”.

I believe that “nominication” has both positive and negative sides. If you are in a team with respectable people, you definitely enjoy the nominication and earn lots of valuable things from co-workers and bosses, but if not… If you are keep avoiding “nominication”, people might think you have communication problems or think you are very anti-social person.  Fortunately, I have not worked at the companies or teams that force to join in negative “nominication”.

The most important thing is very simple as you know, choose the best company or team you feel comfortable and really want to work for. Older generations in Japan have grown and succeeded with “nominication” and many of them are higher positions in traditional Japanese companies still think “nominication” is highly valuable, which I do not know it is for their own entertainment (just want to show off tales of their heroic exploits) or really thinking the importance of communication. Of cause, you can’t really tell that the company values nominication or not, but if you look at the average of employees and board members, it might tell the culture of the company. Moreover, if you are a sale position in Japanese companies, it is hard to avoid “nominication” with clients. For more information of Japanese business entertainment, check my previous post . http://www.dicethekamikaze.com/blog/jp-culture/japanese-party-stunt/

 The aftermath

On trains in Japan especially the last trains of the day, you often see men in suits be like below especially Fridays.

Have a nice “Nominication”.