[Mr. K]

When I was growing up and started working in the 70s and 80s it was a generally accepted rule that you don’t talk about politics or religion in the workplace.

Maybe not a rule exactly but considered poor manners.

I used to wonder back then why Japanese people were considered so ‘inscrutable’. It was easing a running joke in comic books. Even today it’s hard to get traditional Japanese people to express their opinion. It’s very hard to get them to say “no”. Instead they will say “That is something to consider” or a similar polite response when they cannot say yes.

I’ve grown to see why they are like that.

[pierrem15]

For several centuries in Japan, addressing a superior rudely might result in the sudden separation of your head from your shoulders.

One of the intricacies of the Japanese language is that the grammar changes depending upon whether a social inferior addresses a superior or vice versa. And these differences depend upon the how many levels of separation there are.

Definitely reminds me of Heinlein's quip that an armed society is a polite society.