Go Tokyo Your Experience
Have you ever frequently used the habit of “greeting” others in family, school, or workplace environments? Among young people in Japan, a new trend is quietly emerging: weariness of greetings.
Whether it’s a simple “good morning,” “good afternoon”, or “goodbye,” even including opening greetings in emails, some young people in Japan find them helpless and tedious.
Let’s take a closer look at the reasons behind this aversion.
For some young people, greeting others is seen as a forced social norm, and they believe it is a matter of personal choice.
In their view, since they are not familiar with each other, greeting one another seems quite unnecessary.
Sometimes, to avoid making eye contact with others, they even lower their heads and quickly pass through the office.
From this perspective, the conflict between social norms and individual freedom seems to be becoming increasingly severe.
In this broader context, the well-known Japanese internet TV station AbemaTV once produced a special program about “greeting,” which instantly sparked intense discussions and attention online, revealing that more and more young people are beginning to feel annoyed by greetings and advocating that the decision to greet should be a personal right rather than a societal obligation.
Of course, there are also many people who have raised objections to this, believing that greeting is an important part of maintaining basic social etiquette that should not be easily discarded. In Japan, phrases like “Good morning” and “Thank you for your hard work” are common polite expressions of communication in the workplace.
However, some professionals have questioned this phenomenon. They believe that greetings are an important courtesy for maintaining a harmonious work environment; even a simple greeting can bring people closer together and create a more congenial and warmer office atmosphere.
Among the participants of the interview was a young man who firmly believes that whether to greet someone should depend on personal choice. He stated: “I think whether to greet someone depends on personal standards.”
In addition, he added: “We should have the freedom not to greet, as common sense changes over time and should be adjusted accordingly.”
He emphasized that the viewpoints of young people will shape the future common sense, as they are the leaders of the next generation. Therefore, society needs to listen to and gradually adapt to these new voices.
More intriguingly, a study shows that Japanese people waste up to 8.1 billion yen in economic output every day just on opening greetings when replying to emails. This figure is not only shocking but also triggers profound reflections on the efficiency and etiquette of daily communication in society.
However, reflecting on this trend, if a simple greeting can elicit a smile or a nod from the other person, isn’t it worth it? The significance of etiquette lies not in its form, but in the warmth and humanity it brings to life by conveying greetings and goodwill.
In the pursuit of efficiency in the workplace, perhaps we should consider when greetings can enhance interactions between people, rather than merely viewing them as redundant actions.
In any case, in this era of gradually changing habits, the diverse views presented by the simple act of greeting remind us that while embracing change, we should also respect everyone’s deep personal understanding and choice regarding etiquette.
