Sound-bite version of legal ruling is an imbalanced substitute for a proper meal/understanding of the situation.
Before we get into the meat of this article, let’s start with a linguistics appetizer. Pretty much anyone with a passing interest in the Japanese language, or even Japanese culture in general, knows that the suffix -san often gets used after people’s names in Japan. It often gets approximated to “Mr.” or “Ms.,” but -san’s actual nuance is a little more complex, since it gets used after given names too, but the key point is that it’s used as a sign of polite respect, especially since addressing someone with no suffix at all in Japanese can sound brusque and overbearing.
However, -san isn’t the only commonly used name suffix in Japan. There’s also -chan, which has a warmer, more affectionate tone. That’s not necessarily affectionate in the sense of romantic affection, either, as -chan is often used when talking to kids. It’s also pretty common within friend groups of young women, and it’s not shocking for it to be used by guys addressing platonic female friends with whom they’re on good terms (and to be clear, “good terms” means just that, with no wink or nudge).
And now, on to the main course: following a verdict announced on October 23, a number of Japanese media outlets have posted articles with headlines saying, in one way or another, that the Tokyo District Court ruled that using -chan in the workplace constitutes sexual harassment.
The nature of modern news being what it is, the urge to condense a complex issue down to its pithiest, most impactful single-bite summary is understandable. That doesn’t make it applaudable, though, and there are definitely other factors to take into consideration here.
The lawsuit was filed by an ex-employee of Sagawa Express, one of Japan’s largest home delivery service companies. The woman, who is in her 40s, began working at a Sagawa sales office in Tokyo in 2020. Among her coworkers was the older man who she would eventually sue for sexual harassment. According to the suit, the man’s conduct caused the woman to suffer from depression, and after she was diagnosed with the condition she took a leave of absence from work before later quitting her job in 2021.
Two years later, the woman filed lawsuits against both the man himself and Sagawa Express, seeking monetary damages from sexual harassment. This past February, Sagawa settled out of court for a sum of 700,000 yen (US$4,665), but the man chose to fight the accusations in court, ultimately losing the case.
Because the woman’s grievances included the man’s use of -chan when addressing her, the verdict resulted in alarmist headlines presenting the situation as the court ruling that -chan qualifies as punishable sexual harassment. And it is true that in explaining the ruling, presiding judge Shinji Tahara mentioned the suffix, calling it unnecessary in a business environment and saying that even if used with the intent of friendly familiarity, in light of the age and gender difference between the plaintiff and defendant, and the fact that they were simply coworkers without a personal friendship, the use of -chan could be considered offensive to the woman. Though she was awarded far less than the 5.5 million yen she was seeking from the man in the suit, the court has ordered him to pay her 220,000 yen in damages.
▼ Definitely not life-changing money, but at least month-changing money.
However, framing this as “using -chan is now legally classified as sexual harassment” or “if a man uses -chan in talking to a woman it means he’s a creep” is a gross oversimplification. What the soundbite headlines are leaving out is that in addition to addressing the woman with -chan, he also had a pattern of telling her things like “You’re cute” and “You have a good figure.” As such, this doesn’t appear to be a case of someone whose office conduct and conversational habits were otherwise impeccably courteous getting the judicial hammer slammed down on him just for being too familiar in his choice of suffix. Instead, it paints a picture of someone who didn’t understand or didn’t care about common-sense boundaries in a professional environment, and it’s the basket of questionable comments that got him in trouble, not the use of -chan alone.
Linguistic fine points and societal norms often don’t have a one-to-one translation into other cultures, but if you were looking for one for the tone that -chan has, it’s kind of similar to putting a -y or -ie on someone’s name. Let’s say, for example, that you have a coworker whose name is Susan. Calling her “Susy” could be seen as a warm, friendly way of speaking, but it’s important to make sure that she’s comfortable being addressed that way, and to respect her opinion if she’s not. Insisting on calling her Susy regardless of how she feels about it would be inappropriate, and if you’re choosing to call her that while saying things like “You sure are good-looking, Susy” or “Nice bod, Susy!”, then yeah, that’s not cool for multiple reasons.
All of which is to say that it’s not using -chan that’ll get a man accused of sexual harassment in Japan, but unilaterally deciding that it’s OK to press in past established baseline formality when dealing with a woman, which is true in any language or culture.
Source: 47 News, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Teleasa News, Hachima Kiko
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Men and women show a difference in opinion on how strongly they need the cinematic romance staple in their real-life love life.
You can’t talk about dating in Japan without the concept of kokuhaku, or directly confessing one’s romantic feelings, coming up. But while a pivotal kokuhaku scene is a must in romance TV dramas and anime, is it something that Japanese singles think is absolutely necessary in real-life courtship?
To investigate, Japanese matchmaking service Zwei recently conducted a survey of 361 adults, 232 identifying themselves as men and 121 as women, regarding their kokuhaku history and aspirations. When asked how their previous relationships started, the respondents showed that confessions of feelings have indeed been a big part of their love lives. 69.8 percent of women said that their past relationships had been solidified with a kokuhaku to make them part of an official couple, and even more men, 73.1 percent, said the same.
However, those past patterns didn’t perfectly translate into an assumption that their next relationship has to have a formal declaration of feelings. When asked what their ideal way of starting a new relationship would be, a proper kokuhaku was still women’s top choice, from 52 percent of the respondents. 32 percent of them, though, said they’d be happiest with a relationship that starts as friendship, and then organically evolves into romantic love, followed by 16 percent who said their ideal would be a sudden sensation that they’d found their romantic match from the moment they met.
Kokuhaku were seen as even less mandatory by the men in the survey. Friendship that grows naturally into love was their top choice for how a relationship could start, at 40.4 percent. An explicit confession of love finished second in their ranking, at 38.6 percent, with 19.3 percent saying things clicking immediately upon the first meeting is best and 1.8 percent giving a mysterious answer of “other” when asked about the ideal way to become a couple.
▼ “We’d first connect through our shared life experiences from being born with traffic cone heads, and things would just sort of develop naturally from there,” would, ostensibly, fall into the “other” category.
Still, with the majority of women and nearly half of men saying that they think a relationship should have a kokuhaku, it’s not like the concept has become outdated. As for which side of the relationship has been doing the feeling-confessing, it’s overwhelmingly the guys. Out of the respondents whose past relationships began with a kokuhaku, the men said they were the one who first confessed their feelings 78.1 percent of the time, and women with kokuhaku in their dating past said that their boyfriends were the one who confessed their feelings 89.5 percent of the time.
So does this mean that it’s a man’s duty to do the kokuhaku? Not necessarily. Only 1.9 percent of the survey participants said that the confession of feelings is something that the woman should do, but also just 13.6 percent said it’s something the guy is supposed to do. The most common sentiment, by far, came from the 83.9 percent who said that it’s fine for either person to be the one who put their romantic feelings into words first.
Source: PR Times
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Promises to be accessible to domestic and international Sailor Moon fans.
Given the franchise’s now generations-spanning popularity with fans both in Japan and overseas, a Sailor Moon-themed restaurant seems like it should be a slam-dunk success, especially with daily stage shows featuring the Sailor Senshi performing live for audiences. And so it was that Shining Moon Tokyo opened in an atmosphere of great excitement in Tokyo’s Azabu Juban neighborhood. There was no way that such a promising venture could fail, short of some sort of global catastrophe that not only took going out for entertainment and leisure traveling completely off the table, but did so for so long that no one could say when things would return to normal, but such a far-fetched scenario seemed laughably unlikely when the restaurant opened…in August of 2019.
Within a few months the coronavirus pandemic would begin, and by early 2020 it had made its way to Japan. While mandated restaurant closures didn’t take place in Tokyo, Shining Moon Tokyo was also a stage theater, and those venues were ordered to shut down. Shining Moon Tokyo had its final visitors in April of that year, and in July, still without the OK to reopen, made the difficult decision to close down permanently.
It’s hard to imagine a clearer case of an enterprise failing not because of any flaws in its concept, but simply because of bad timing regarding utterly unforeseeable events. So with pandemic protocols now a thing of the past and inbound international tourism to Japan booming, Shining Moon Tokyo isn’t just reopening, it’s coming back bigger than ever, with the announcement of the grand opening of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Shining Theater Shinagawa Tokyo.
The theater will be a renovation and rebranding of the Club eX venue within Tokyo’s Shinagawa Prince Hotel complex, located just a short walk from Shinagawa Station (which is located on both the Yamanote loop line that circles the Tokyo city center and the Tokkaido Shinkansen line that connects Tokyo with Kyoto and Osaka). The producers are promising a “spectacular” show featuring all 10 Sailor Senshi, and while the switch to a more dedicated theater format appears to mean that full meals won’t be offered, special Sailor Moon-themed drinks will be served.
▼ Early concept images for the theater’s interior
As many overseas fans of Japanese pop culture are painfully aware, it can be difficult for non-residents of Japan to get tickets for entertainment events in Japan. Some require an in-Japan address or phone number, and others only accept payment through Japanese credit cards or have stipulations that the purchaser’s name must match that of the ticketholder, preventing proxy purchases. However, the Sailor Moon theater intends to be traveler-accessible, with its website saying that tickets “will be available not only for domestic audiences but also for international tourists.”
The Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Shining Theater Tokyo is scheduled to open in April of 2026.
Source: PR Times, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Shining Theater Tokyo official website
Top image: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Shining Theater Tokyo official website
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Esteemed plush toy maker brings over a century of tradition to three new Totoros.
One of the great things about Ghibli, outside of the movie sphere, is its willingness to support and champion local companies through its merchandise. Now, the studio has enlisted the help of Sekiguchi, a Japanese manufacturing company that’s been in business since 1918. Though it specialises in stuffed toys, most famously with its line of Monchhichi dolls, Sekiguchi is now breaking new ground by creating a trio of Totoro porcelain dolls for Studio Ghibli.
The dolls can be purchased separately, starting with the Large Totoro (6,600 yen [US$43.29]), which measures approximately 10.8 centimetres (4.25 inches) in height, 8.5 centimetres in width and 7.8 centimetres in depth.
Though the grey Totoro is perhaps most well known to overseas fans of My Neighbour Totoro, here in Japan the studio likes to shine a spotlight on the two other Totoros that appear in the film, and this range depicts them beautifully.
▼ The blue “Medium Totoro” (4,400 yen) measures 6.9 x 5 x 5.4 centimetres.
▼ And the white “Small Totoro” (3,300 yen) measures 5 x 3.4 x 4 centimetres.
The round-eyed figurines have such a charming, whimsical ambience to them that it’s difficult to choose a favourite. Sensing that might be the case, the studio is giving us the option to purchase them all as a three-piece set, priced at 14,300 yen.
▼ These dolls are cute from every angle, including the rear.
Although the set doesn’t represent any savings compared to purchasing them separately, it does mean you can purchase them all at the click of a button at the online store, and you can rest assured that you can own them all without the fear of one of them selling out.
▼ Because items this cute are known to sell out within days of being released.
Whether you purchase them as a trio or individually, each Totoro comes with its own box, which is perfect for storing or gift-giving.
The dolls will bring warmth and joy to your home, fitting in perfectly with any type of interior.
The dolls were released on 24 October, and can be purchased at the studio’s Donguri Kyowakoku retail chain and online through the links below.
Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
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Jiji, Calcifer and Totoro bring mist to dry days in the cutest of ways.
With temperatures in Japan finally dropping after a sweltering, too-long summer, people across the country are finally breathing a sigh of relief. That sigh might feel a little bit scratchy, though, because with cooler temperatures comes dry air, which can affect everything from your skin to your respiratory tract and even your mood.
Here in time to help us with all of that is a range of small humidifiers from Studio Ghibli’s specialty retail chain Donguri Kyowakoku, and there are three designs to choose from.
The first design is “Totoro Playing the Ocarina“, inspired by the scene where the titular character plays the instrument in My Neighbour Totoro. Here, though, the magical ocarina blows out steam to soothe and moisturise your airways while putting a smile on your face with sweet details.
You’ll find gorgeous forest motifs around the trunk, along with a trio of Soot Sprites and the white Small Totoro blowing into an ocarina-like blossom.
Simply fill the bottle with water and connect it to a USB cable and it’ll pump out plumes of mist — perfect for cold dry days by the computer.
▼ The second design, called “Calcifer’s Bacon and Eggs“, features the charismatic fire spirit from Howl’s Moving Castle.
This cleverly designed product will warm you up just by looking at it, as the magical mist makes it seem like Calcifer is using his fiery energy to cook the bacon and fried eggs.
▼ This is a humidifier that’ll make you feel warm…and hungry too.
▼ The only thing missing from the scene is the glorious sizzle of a fried breakfast.
Calcifer doesn’t only appear at the top of the humidifier, as his cute face can be seen on the body of the bottle as well.
Staying on the theme of breakfast, we have the third design in the lineup, called “Jiji and Breakfast“.
Black cat Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service is the star of the show here, sitting atop a table with a stack of pancakes…
▼ …and a hot mug that sends out plumes of steam.
As is the case with a lot of products related to Kiki’s Delivery Service, Kiki herself doesn’t make an appearance but her presence is felt in the bright red hues that are evocative of her ribbon.
The Ghibli humidifiers first made their appearance back in 2022, with a restock in 2023 and 2024, but this year there’s one thing missing from the lineup as the Otori-sama bird bathers from Spirited Away are sadly unavailable.
Still, after previously selling out and becoming impossible to get, we’re thankful to see the three humidifiers return to help us fight the good fight against dry air for another year.
Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
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Bring the warmth of Japanese train seat heating into the comfort of your home.
It’s been a particularly odd year for weather in Japan, with the heat lingering until just a few days ago, when the temperatures fell dramatically to winter-like levels. As it feels like we’re skipping autumn and going straight into winter, we’re already looking for things to keep us warm, and this year there’s a new product to give us one of the most comforting features of a Japanese winter: train seat heating.
Created by Thanko, the quirky innovators who brought us a hot air bag clothes dryer and the chair umbrella, this clever product lets you enjoy the cosy warmth of a heated Japanese train seat, right in the comfort of your home or office.
Released on 22 September, the “Like a Train Seat Heater” provides calf-warming comfort in a choice of three colours — Red, Green, and “Glay” (“Grey”) — which are reminiscent of real train seat upholstery, to make it feel like you’re actually sitting on a train.
While Japanese trains tend to push air out from heaters underneath the seat, this product replicates that action with four heating zones: two under the thighs and two behind the calves, warming up those hard-to-reach areas.
The calf section includes a polycarbonate board with built-in springiness so the heating element feels comfortable against your lower legs.
It’s also designed with raised edges to recreate the snug fit of a train seat, which might just send you off into the same sort of blissful slumber you might enjoy on a long train ride.
Powered by USB, the temperature can be adjusted through three levels — High (46 degrees Celsius [115 degrees Fahrenheit]), Medium (44 degrees Celsius), and Low (42 degrees Celsius) — using a wired remote control. It automatically switches off after 60 minutes to prevent overheating and as a safeguard in case you forget to turn it off.
▼ With a storage pocket for a mobile battery included, the operating time is about four hours on High, five hours on Medium, and six hours on Low.
There are a lot of products on the market that’ll keep your body warm in winter but you’ll be hard-pressed to find one that warms your heart with the sensation of a cosy Japanese train ride as well. The “Like a Train Seat Heater” is priced at 6,980 yen (US$45.70), and can be purchased at Thanko’s official online store and physical retail locations.
Related: Thanko Retail Locations
Source, images: PR Times
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