Featured

tipping

More tip jars appear at Japanese restaurants, but there are important reasons why you shouldn’t tip

Japan is now at a cultural tipping point, where foreign influences threaten to destroy local customs. 

Read More

Parents of 10-year-old in Kyoto who spent 4.6 million yen on TikTok and more seek reimbursement

Them’s the breaks…even when you’re breaking the bank.

Read More

Restaurant payment app starts its second attempt to make tipping a thing in Japan

Second tip option added to service that also has Oshi Support.

Read More

Japanese restaurant chain installs tip boxes in response to foreign tourists leaving tips, sparks debate

Beef cutlet chain’s policy attracting a new wave of attention as inbound foreign tourist numbers and consumer prices continue to rise.

Read More

Time for Japan to start tipping taxi drivers? Cab company now gives passengers option in Tokyo

In no-tipping Japan, most people just pay whatever the meter says, but this company is now letting passengers pay more.

Read More

Five reasons there’s no tipping at restaurants in Japan

Guidebooks love to say it’s because Japanese people think tipping is rude, but that’s not even close to the whole story.

Read More

【TBT】Tipping in Japan: Yes, it exists and it’s confusing

Flipping through any travel guide about Japan you will learn that Japan is a country where tipping is non-existent. Leaving your change on the table at a restaurant may result in the waiter chasing you down to give it back.

But in Japan there actually is a system of tipping that exists but is tangled in a mysterious system of formality that no one really seems sure of. In an interview with Yahoo! Japan, Nobuko Akashi of the Japan Manners & Protocol Association attempts to unravel this system so we can all know when and where it’s appropriate to tip in Japan.

Read More

Stingy people rejoice as Japanese restaurants in New York introduce a ban on tipping

“Please can I give you a tip? In America, we have this custom, you know. I have to tip the pizza guy. And you came all the way out here in this weather…”

The rain-drenched delivery man on the doorstep of the Japanese apartment looked mildly embarrassed as he waved away my friend’s money. It was a typhoon day – classes cancelled, school closed, and the English teachers from my school had piled into one apartment for a party. Not wanting to brave the lashing wind and rain to go out and get food, we had ordered pizza, but hadn’t counted on the guilt we would feel when the delivery guy turned up on a moped looking like he’d just jumped into a swimming pool fully clothed.

In Japan, there’s no custom of tipping. In fact, leaving a tip could potentially be considered rude, as the cost of the service is already supposed to be included in the price you pay. My American buddy’s attempt to follow his home custom in Japan ended in the delivery driver apologising profusely for not accepting the tip! In New York City, meanwhile, Japanese restaurants are bringing the no-tipping custom Stateside, as Restaurant Riki becomes the latest Manhattan establishment to ban their customers from tipping.

Read More

Tipping in Japan: Yes, It Exists and It’s Confusing

Flipping through any travel guide about Japan you will learn that Japan is a country where tipping is non-existent. Leaving your change on the table at a restaurant may result in the waiter chasing you down to give it back.

But in Japan there actually is a system of tipping that exists but is tangled in a mysterious system of formality that no one really seems sure of. In an interview with Yahoo! Japan, Nobuko Akashi of the Japan Manners & Protocol Association attempts to unravel this system so we can all know when and where it’s appropriate to tip in Japan.

Read More