Japan. When I say this word, what comes to mind? Cleanliness? Organization? Perhaps kaizen or kanban? What about efficiency and meticulousness—have you ever seen them wrapping gifts?

I lived in Japan for more than a year and recently went on a month-long trip with friends and took the opportunity to rediscover the country. This time, I kept wondering: are they really that meticulous?

The Case of Japanese Meticulousness

After World War II, Japan was motivated to rebuild its economy, with William Edwards Deming cited as a significant contributor. Ever since, or at least for as long as I remember, Japanese products and–dare I say–work have always been synonymous with excellence. Approaching Japan with a rediscovery mindset, I couldn’t help but wonder: why is their non-Japanese work not held to the same standards?

Many would argue that their English proficiency is very poor. Which begs the question: why do they not hire professional translators? Often, it’s not a translation error but simply a typing one—the latter of which should be easily fixed by Japanese attention to detail. Just to get the point across, I even saw a menu where the upper-half was for “hot drinks” and the lower-half for “cold dronks”.

This is not an exception; whether it is on restaurant menus or official notices, digital or handwritten, anyone who goes to Japan is bound to encounter a handful of those oddities!

It’s also important to point out that, while funny, these might seriously contribute to non-English-speaking tourists getting lost; using a translator on badly translated sentences might yield results pointing you in the wrong direction! Or, even less desirable, they might lead a tourist to ask a Japanese staff for directions in English. Trust me, they don’t like to speak English.

They sometimes don’t even include the Japanese text for you to try and translate from the original sentence. I suspect this can happen due to unspoken rules, which would be known by Japanese but not by foreigners—hence the absence of Japanese language.

During my free time while traveling, I thought up some hypotheses as to why this happens in a country that seems to put excellence above all else. Here they are, in what I think is the most probable order:

1. The Group

Japan is well-known for being a collectivist country. However, there is also a non-negligible individualistic side to it as well: if you get into a fight or simply fall down the stairs and hurt yourself. Most people do not want problems to enter their life “bubble” and will, therefore, not assist you.

The same could be applied to what they call “nuisance”: if you begin to rap with a beat in the middle of the street, many would stare at you. However, if you are a no-name politician and blast a megaphone to advertise your campaign, people will gladly rally around you. In summary, it can be said that it’s fine to be a nuisance as long as you’re working for a group and not personal gains—although I would argue that politics is also for personal gain.

What I want to get at is that, as a group, they might not care about what foreigners think of their English. Therefore, they don’t judge themselves on their mistakes.

2. Nenko system

In Japan, seniority is the most important aspect of one’s work life. The person who arrived even one day earlier than you is your senpai and you must not contradict him.

My second hypothesis is that these kind of signs are translated by more senior people–and not the most competent, so nobody dares correct their mistakes.

3. Cost of translation

I do not work in the field, but perhaps the administrative and financial burden of hiring a translator is too heavy. Playing devil’s advocate here, but is money more important than accommodating your foreign customers? It seems ironic considering an American man helped them build this image.

4. Maybe it’s intentional

The least likely in my mind is that they’re doing all those translation errors on purpose. People would post it on social media, everyone would get a good laugh and maybe some would even go to Japan to try and search for the funniest one. Sure, the errors are harmless—except when it’s in a government, official letter, yikes—but I sincerely doubt that there is some marketing mastermind behind all this.

It’s a small pet peeve of mine, but I sincerely believe that tendencies like this can explain some deep things about the culture of its people. And maybe, just maybe, I can get a discussion started, so we can learn more about this lovely country.