JAPANESE COURTESY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19060, 3 May 1930, Page 26 (Supplement)

JAPANESE COURTESY.

One old national custom, which the Japanese have long ceased to expect the strangers to observe, is that of removing their shoes before entering a building. It is interesting to note the difference in the Japanese shopkeeper’s manner of receiving the two classes of customers. Native buyers, leaving their shoes at the entrance, subside gracefully to the floor. There they sit, inspecting the wares and bargaining with infinite patience over the prices. The foreigners, on the other hand, enter shod in the usual manner, and the proprietor hastens forward to offer them chairs. Rudeness or neglect of any kind is never experienced in a Japanese shop. Courtesy is carried to extraordinary lengths in everything, as, for example, in the selling of cloth by the yard. Instead of cutting the required amount off the loose outside end, as is generally done here, the assistant unrolls the whole piece and cuts from the inside end, in order that the customer may get the freshest portion and not that w’hich may slightly shopworn through exposure.