Blogs and Articles from Third Way Forum Membrs

・ Apology in Japan is often used as a tool to achieve social harmony and smoothen relationships.

・ It is often used casually to express one’s humbleness, politeness and decency. So even if someone suddenly bumps to you, you apologize anyway. Most likely the other person also apologizes at the same time.

・ The Japanese apologize for the situation. Not for the things he or she did. The fact that you are somehow in a confusing or inconvenient situation with others. So you apologize for such a situation.

・ More serious apology is often used as an official closure of a problematic situation. By someone officially apologizing in public, the Japanese see the case is closed.

・ If it is a more serious case, such as some corruption scandal, the official apology in public is usually followed by the resignation of the person in charge.

・ The Japanese want to see sincerity when someone apologies. If they see a lack of sincerity, the person is not forgiven and the case will not get closed even after the official apology.

・ While this Japanese apology practice works well among the Japanese, it could cause many communication issues and misunderstanding in working with foreign professionals.

・ The Western people tend to see someone who is frequently apologizing as weak and unreliable. In the West, apology could be often associated with admittance of guilt or acceptance of responsibility. So especially in the business settings, people do not want to easily apologize. While apology often works as a nice closure of the case in Japan, apology could cause a new liability for the apologizer in the West.

・ We need to be aware of this perception difference regarding apology between Japan and the West. Otherwise, the Japanese could be constantly seen weak and always taking responsibilities in the West while the Westerns could look defensive and arrogant.

・ The way to take responsibilities after admitting a mistake and apologizing is different between the Japanese and the Westerns. The Japanese person who is responsible usually steps down even if it was not his or her fault. The fact that it happened in his/her company or department is seen punishable. On the other hand, the Western person is responsible usually try to pay back by solving the issue with best effort. It is seen as a sign of sincere apology. Maybe this difference could be explained by comparing Shogi (Japanese Chess) and Western Chess. In Japanese Chess, Shogi, even you lose your pieces, they can come back. In the Western Chess, once you lose your pieces, they are gone. In fact, many Japanese leaders, politicians etc, often come back even after they resign once due to some scandals etc. So just like apology, resignation may be used more casually in Japan as an convenient tool to make an official closure of an issue so that the society can move on.

・ Quite often in Japan, superiors have to come and apologize for the wrong-doings of their subordinates. It is common everywhere in the world that if something bad happens, some top leaders, CEOs or Politicians, apologize as representatives of the organizations. But in Japan, it seems much more frequent that you have to apologize for something happened beyond your control. Not only top leaders but a much more wide management populations are apologizing all the time. It probably comes from the fact that many Japanese companies still do not have clear roles & responsibilities for individual employees. Since they are more collectively working for their collective goals, more people have to represent their company and apologize for many things happening in the company.

・ Anyway, regardless of the notion of apology you may have, the most important thing is to have frank discussions to find common grounds and work together.