Nomikai

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Nomikai ( Japanese 飲み 会; dt. "Drinking society") are group-internal celebrations to strengthen professional connections and a part of social life typical of Japanese society .

Nomikai are an integral part of all employment and training relationships . While employees are not specifically required to attend, they are expected to some extent as such parties are viewed as a social aspect of work rather than private events or leisure.

Alcohol consumption is not required of any Nomikai participant, but very often such events or the following activities can degenerate into real "drinking bouts".

procedure

Nomikai are held on a variety of occasions, e.g. B. on the occasion of the completion of important projects, the achievement of set goals, anniversaries or school sporting events or the start or retirement of colleagues. At least one organizer (幹事kanji ) is responsible for the preparation, but this is usually not the person for whom the celebration takes place.

Nomikai are often held in restaurants or izakayas , with all participants usually sitting around a large table or in a separate room.

At the beginning of the event, the organizers give a brief welcome speech, followed by the manager, president or company boss, who offer a few words of review and encouragement. This speech ends with a toast , after which the informal part begins. If new employees or guests are present, it is common for them to introduce themselves to the other participants. This usually includes a tour of the employee within the group with a bottle of beer (or sake / shōchū ), from which he pours a glass for his new colleagues.

Nomikai are almost always ended by everyone standing up and clapping their hands together. There are two main variations of this clapping: ippon-jime (roughly: one-clap end ) and sanbon-jime (roughly: three-clap end ). The latter consists of three claps followed by a single clap. This can all be repeated three times, so that a total of up to 30 claps is made.

Sometimes, at the end ( shime ), there is loud reverence to the organizer or an honored participant, or the company or school song is sung.

Usually all participants pay the same amount for food, drinks and entertainment regardless of the actual consumption. Any money left over is then used to organize the next nomikai .

After the nomikai , the participants often split up into smaller groups and go to different bars. Such “after parties ” are called nijikai (二次 会, second meeting ). Participation is voluntary, so the groups often consist of friends or people who are just interested in drinking. If there is even another drinking session afterwards, this is called sanjikai (三次 会, third meeting ).

Bonenkai

A special form of nomikai are year-end celebrations, so-called bōnenkai (忘年 会). While at Nomikai z. B. only members of the same department or a certain company area participate, bōnenkai can also be organized for all company employees.

In large companies there can often also be individual bōnenkai for each department, which then take place on different dates than the overall bōnenkai .

The meaning of the festival is "Forget the year", which does not mean to suppress what has happened, but to clear your head for the tasks of the coming year.

behaviour rules

At Nomikai , you avoid filling your own glass, but instead offer others to fill their glass. This is particularly true for Senpai - Kōhai relationships, where the lower-ranking or younger participant offers to pour the older one first. Often the higher one offers to fill the younger one afterwards. This behavior is not understood as ingratiation, but as behavior that promotes a harmonious atmosphere in the workplace.

In Japan it is socially accepted to get drunk at Nomikai , often to the point of complete abandon. Things that are said or done under these conditions are not officially acknowledged and are no longer discussed in the subsequent everyday work. As a result, these parties can lead to very direct and violent arguments between colleagues of different rank that would not occur in the workplace. This phenomenon is called bureikō (無礼 講).

On the other hand, nobody may be forced to drink at Nomikai . A participant who refrains from (further) alcohol consumption can show this by ordering a non-alcoholic drink or by leaving the full glass standing.

Related terms

Enkai (宴会) means banquet and is often used as a generic term for nomikai and bōnenkai .

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