Everyday on news, I hear something harassment in Japan. I am wondering what harassment is going on in Japan. I listed some of funny and interesting harassment in Japan.

Surprisingly, there are new types of harassment in Japan defined everyday and these are usually Wasei-Eigo (Japanese-made English), and coined word which are abbreviated into “○○ハラ”. On my previous post, I have showed about basic rules of Japanese abbreviated word. http://www.dicethekamikaze.com/blog/jp-language/japanese-abbreviated-words/

This something harassment words follows rule 1.

foreign compound nouns that each words has 2 or 3 syllables abbreviated to one word combined with first two morae in each word.

When you hear these terms on Japanese TV news and shows, it says something about harassment; however, there are new types of harassment defined in Japan. It seems that the word ‘harassment’ has lots of meaning in Japan which includes, “harassment”, “discrimination against”, and “causing trouble”.

New types of harassment

Last year, 2014, “harassment for pregnancy” (pregnancy discrimination) a.k.a “maternity harassment” (matahara マタハラ) was nominated to the 10 vogue words of 2014. http://www.dicethekamikaze.com/blog/jp-culture/japanese-vogue-words-2014/

New types of harassment often demonstrate changes of  Japanese society both positively and negatively. For example, in Japanese society, male chauvinism is still deep rooted, but this “maternity harassment” represents the rights of female workers in business, and decline of male chauvinism in Japanese society. Moreover, negative example is that sometimes the new definition of harassment are overexaggerated to accuse certain group of people.

According to wikipedia, definition of harassment is

it is intentional behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing.

However, some people are very sensitive about harassment and abuse to use the word harassment for everything they feel uncomfortable. New types of harassment defined in Japan, sometimes the term “intentional behaviour” are neglected and turned into wrong use of the word, which happen very often in borrowing words.

Harassment in Japanese work place is very sensitive to talk about.

List of harassment in Japan.

I am hoping the definition and practice of accusing these harassment are working positively in workplaces and used correctly. Again, there are too much harassment in Japan.

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”.

source: http://photozou.jp/photo/show/138431/20792784

Children’s day (Boys festival) in Japan.

On May 5th in Japan. It is a national holiday called “Kodomo no hi” (Children’s day).
It is part of Golden week (a long holiday season) in Japan. About golden week, check my previous post. (http://www.dicethekamikaze.com/blog/jp-culture/golden-week/)

It is called children’s day, but it is the holiday for boys. For more information, wikipedia.

This day was originally celebrated wishing the boys in the family to grow healthy and strong.
Koinobori (carp streamers) are raised and flown outside as a symbol of strength, and May dolls (An armored Samurai doll) or miniature samurai warrior helmet (kabuto) are displayed inside of the house.

Two traditions:

On children’s day, there are two traditions in Japan.

1) Koinobori (Carp streamers)

2) Display May dolls or samurai warrior helmet and armor.

Around this time, even Colonel Sanders celebrates boys being May dolls.