Japanese unique words, difficult to translate into other languages

Each language has specific words that can't be translated easily. Here are some words I could find within Japanese words. When you have a chance to collaborate with the Japanese, you might hear some of them...

Karoshi (過労死), Karojisatsu (過労自殺)

"Karo" means "overwork", "shi" means death. "Jisatsu" means suicide. Many issues are caused by overwork in Japan and unfortunately, our productivity is very poor.

Seken-Tei (世間体)

"Seken" means society. "Tei" means appearance. It means the reputation of you, but not only just you, it includes anyone who is close or related to you in any form in the society such as your family, friends, relatives so forth community. A subject can be anything, for instance, education, career, marriage, family, and relationship, not necessarily something dramatic or scandalous. Although I don't hear this very often, to some extent, the Japanese care about it.

Settai (接待)

Typically Settai means business dinner. When you invite external parties to dinner to have a closer relationship with a company expense, it is Settai. Sometimes it leads to a series of activities you need to join after dinner. For those who want to know more, I found this article. There are other types of Settai, such as "Settai-golf"(接待ゴルフ) or "Settai-trip"(接待旅行). The most important thing is you never say Settai in a voice during Settai. It implies you feel something compulsory or negative about what's going on. Please be careful if you use it.

Nemawashi (根回し)

"Ne" means root, "Mawashi" means to go around. I just learned the original meaning from Wikipedia.

digging around the roots of a tree, to prepare it for a transplant

Most Japanese don't know the original meaning since the actual "Nemawashi" is nothing to do with the transplant. According to Wikipedia, it is defined as follows;

"Nemawwshi": An informal process of quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or project, by talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback, and so forth.

I'd like to rephrase it based on my understanding;

"Nemawashi": Various kinds of activities to obtain buy-in beforehand so that nothing is surprised to anyone involved when it's finalized.

Nemawashi needs to take care of people who don't have authority. If you want to make something approved and its approver wants to get agreement from all his/her subordinates, there is no way to avoid it. This is a mandatory step in order to make something concrete when you work with a large organization in Japan.

Hatarakikata Kaikaku (働き方改革)

"Hatarakikata" means work style, "Kaikaku" means revolution. It means "Work Style Reform". Originally it's from Prime Minister Abe’s policy to survive the era of decreasing labor population and super-aging. Basically, it aims for a flexible and fair labor market. I can see some good effects, for example, some companies encourage telecommute working or job-seeking apart from the main job, although there will be still a long way to go. Some companies turn lights off after business hours and push workers out of the office. They end up getting the remaining work done at the cafe near the office.

Pawa-hara (パワハラ)

It's a short form of power harassment. If you hear something "hara", it means some sort of harassment, for example, "Seku-hara" (Sexual Harassment") "Sume-hara" (Smell Harassment"), "Mata-hara" (Maternity Harassment"), etc.

Black Kigyo (ブラック企業), Black

"Black" indicates something illegal or immoral. "Kigyo" means a corporation. We also call it just Black. English corresponding word is "sweatshop", although Black can cover broader meaning. Not necessarily the manufacturing industry, any industry can be Black, if the employer forces its employee something illegal or immoral. You can see the list of companies in Black Kigyo Award.

Yome-Block (嫁ブロック)

"Yome" means wife/wives in Japanese. When a husband wants to change his career, either accepting the job offer from another company or starting own his business, his wife doesn't agree and he can't achieve it, we say "He couldn't change his career because of Yome Block. "Oya-Block" ("Oya"=parents) is the same concept. This is a relatively new word to show that the labor market in Japanese is getting to be flexible compared to before.

When you learn the language, you can learn about its culture, although it's difficult to understand completely.