In Japan, saying ‘sorry, I was drunk’ often excuses bad behaviour. Gen Z could change that

Tada, 55, was arrested by police on Thursday on suspicion of attempting to forcibly hug and kiss a woman flight attendant after yelling at other passengers and attempting to hit at least one other person, according to Japan’s Fuji News Network.

His behaviour aboard the aircraft was sufficient to attract the attention of the nation’s media, but his excuse – that he was too intoxicated to remember his actions – has raised no eyebrows. Being drunk and apologising are, it seems, steps on the path to absolution in the eyes of many Japanese.

Izumi Tsuji, a professor of the sociology of culture at Tokyo’s Chuo University, puts it down to the two key elements of the Japanese national character.

“We Japanese have two states, honne (true feelings or desires) and tatemae (facade),” he said. “Ordinarily, everything we do at work and in public is tatemae. We are polite and respectful to those around us, we follow the rules of society, and we keep ourselves under control.

“When we want to act freely, we enter our honne world,” he told This Week in Asia. “This is when we travel and relax, when we have our leisure time and yes, when we drink. This is when we show our true feelings and say what we are really thinking.

“The things we say and do when we are at drinking parties stay in that honne world, and what happens there can be used as an excuse.”

That attitude is reflected in the Japanese saying that suggests the person who is polite in their public life can be shameless in private, Tsuji said, with the nation’s legions of “salarymen” who in the past saw their limited amount of free time as “treasure” to be enjoyed as they saw fit.

And while times have changed, the attitudes of many men do not appear to have kept pace.

In May 2022, a senior