One of the most important concepts in daily life in Japan is shinyo (SHIN-yo), which means “trust,” and when Japanese have dealings with individuals or businesses, choosing someone they can trust is extremely important. Of course, everyone wants to deal with people and companies they believe will do right by them, but in Japanese society the idea of only working with trustworthy entities is elevated to a much higher cultural level. One way to make sure you’re working with people you can trust is the concept of shokai (SHO-kai), a kind of introduction whereby someone who is already trusted by a third party will formally introduce you to them, in effect sharing the goodwill they’ve already established with both you and the third party. Because both parties have a trust relationship involved, they have an obligation to make sure everything goes smoothly to avoid “stepping on the face” (to use the Japanese phrase) of the person that brought you together. There isn’t a single aspect of Japan that isn’t improved by this trust-based relationship system, and time and time again I’ve found myself depending on people who had been formally introduced to me by someone else I trusted. My wife recently sold her car through a used car dealer, and I happened to remark that it was odd that cars are seldom sold between individuals in Japan — there’s no local version of the Auto Trader or eBay Motors. The reason, I was told, was that no one would ever be able to trust a stranger enough to buy a car, since they might be lied to about important details or otherwise taken advantage of, so they instead rely on professional companies whose reputations they can verify, of course paying more for the privilege.
