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Art of the Japanese company apology: It's all in the bow

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A group of pharmaceutical bosses once took bowing to a legendary level when they dropped to their knees and touched their noses to the floor after supplying HIV-tainted blood products.

This type of noses-on-the-floor pose is called "dogeza," shown on the left of this image: http://goo.gl/ewN4R5

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Wear dark colors, look grim and apologise profusely. Add a liberal sprinkling of words like “unfortunate” and “deeply regrettable”.

How so? Sounds like she is mimicking Abe, she has to include "I'm sorry"!

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

She is in a lose lose situation. I thought she did a good job.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The boss of disgraced auto parts maker Takata chopped his own pay in half for several months after an exploding airbag crisis was linked to at least five deaths,

Only half pay for only several months? While 5 and even more people have lost their lives. This is why for me an apology is only 5% of the punishment. People get off way too easy some times.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

With cameras rolling and reporters at the ready, apology press conferences are a must-do piece of theater for Japanese firms that wandered from the straight-and-narrow in a country that has a dozen expressions for saying sorry.

“I don’t know. All of it? After all, it’s a script. I don’t think Shakespeare said, ‘So-and-so got killed in a fight? Okay, we’ll just drop all the scenes with Mercutio,’” he adds.

“A big difference is that in the West, facts matter,” he says. “Japanese journalists focus on top leaders’ apologies.”

Just what I have been saying for years. These apologies are nothing but meanignless "kabuki" simply done to satisfy the press, and hope they move on to the next target. No one cares about what really happened, or why, and how they intend to fix it -- just the bowing. Completely silly and childish.

2 ( +8 / -6 )

i'm probably going to be roasted by some for this but I find the typical Japanese apology routine a complete waste of time. I couldn't care less how deep you're bowing. If you or your company were negligent, I don't want any of this. I want to see action taken to make sure it never happens again and heads roll so that person(s) will never be in a position to make such mistakes again. This is not necessarily a problem with Japanese apologies, but more my dislike of apologies in general. Again, I don't want to hear "I'm sorry" I don't want to see that behaviour in the first place. That said, the apology protocol in Japan is so enshrined in the culture that you just run through the motions and your sins are absolved. Japan seems like an easy place to scam and be negligent because of this.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

i'm probably going to be roasted by some for this but I find the typical Japanese apology routine a complete waste of time.

Have you ever wondered why? I am not going to "roast" you but try to enlighten you to one thing about Japanese culture, what you may think is a waste of time is considered to be necessary or even above that when a company is found to be at fault for something.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I am not going to "roast" you but try to enlighten you to one thing about Japanese culture, what you may think is a waste of time is considered to be necessary or even above that when a company is found to be at fault for something.

Yubaru -- fine, we all get it. But so what? All cultures have things that are considered "necessary", but are really nothing more than useless exercises. What value do these bows play?

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

The quintessential video for learning how to bow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqZcEwHBAk8&index=79&list=FLSgLZDT0B4ri3J6aOfN0y1w

1 ( +1 / -0 )

“A big difference is that in the West, facts matter,” he says. “Japanese journalists focus on top leaders’ apologies.”

Classic! A perfect example of why apologies here are so utterly superficial and meaningless, while the facts are swept under the rug and forgotten.

serendipitous: Those Japanese Tradition videos are quite funny -- the sushi one being the best. A few Japanese I know watched it and were furious and didn't realize it was satire, then were quiet but pouty when they realized it wasn't foreigners who made the video but the Japanese comedy group themselves. Some are pretty ridiculous, but the dogeza and sushi ones contain a few facts while still being entertainment and self-deprecating as well.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

fine, we all get it. But so what? All cultures have things that are considered "necessary", but are really nothing more than useless exercises. What value do these bows play?

First off my response was not directed to you, only at one specific poster.

Next let me ask you something. What's the point of a handshake? What's the point of an gesture?

What value do these bows play?

I am off to work shortly and to answer this properly would take a wall of text, sorry dont have the time. All I will say though is you and anyone else that ask questions like this need to understand Japanese culture to get the answer you are looking for. Along side that you have to put aside your preconceived notions or ideas that come from your own upbringing as well to truly understand what is happening here, as useless as you may think it is, it serves a purpose to both the company and public.

There will be some in Japan that will see this and think it's phony because she is a foreigner and not Japanese, hence the apology is not sincere, others will be moved by it and grateful to see he making the attempt to conform to Japanese norms. (imagined or otherwise)

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I think Jerseyboy and Yubaru are both right. This bowing and apology ceremony is both absolutely necessary and extremely silly. I'm sure most people, Japanese or otherwise, are smart enough to know that and to know when real amends are also necessary, and when apologies, no matter how perfectly performed, are never to be accepted. It may be buried deep inside you, but it's still up to the individual who has been affected by the malfeasance to decide. And you can always accept the apology without offering forgiveness as well.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

"scandalised by a tooth-in-french-fries disaster."

Its not as if there are teeth showing up in every order nationwide. Japanese are so friggin' knit picky.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

How did tooth get in there? Planted by angry staffer?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Planted by angry staffer?

Possibly, one chomping at the bit for promotion. Back on topic, MacDonalds seems pretty hard hit of late

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

It may be necessary but it is rarely enough...especially in the case of gross negligence. The former president of Snow Brand milk, the heads of many companies which relabeled food and resold it and former Tepco president, Mr. Shimizu, come to mind.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Japanese should stop bowing considering foreign residents don't like it.

As a matter of fact they should stop speaking in Japanese as well.

Again, foreigners don't like and find it useless.

Will Japanese ever learn that foreigners are always right?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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