Bowing in Japan


Japanese Bow

Bow

Bow is part of Japanese people’s daily lives. You don’t just bow once. In fact you may bow at least 20 times depending on the kind of job you hold. Bowing is to show respect to the other person and is considered customary in Japan. I don’t think most Japanese people even think about when bowing tradition started and why..we just do it naturally. 🙂 But of course if you are simply visiting Japan for travel, you are not going to have a lot of chances to bow. But you’re welcome to bow if you would like. 🙂 My boyfriend makes fun of Japanese bow that is typically seen on TV show. As you may know, typical bowing Japanese people do is very informal and nothing like the crazy 90 degrees one that you see on the show.

But Why do we bow anyways? and What does it mean? Among friends, we don’t really bow. Japan has a strong hierarchical system so students are expected to bow to their teachers out of respect. You should also bow to your Senpai (older person in training, work etc) and generally older people. If this is your first time visiting Japan, it would be nice to know the basic of the Japanese culture and of course practice bowing for special occasions. ^_^

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