This is not good.

A little research has appeared under my nose, along with one supporting personal bad experience. My toishi supplier may be trying to cheat people.

I have learned the following thing about Japanese business practices. Once a price is agreed upon, paid, and the item delivered, it is UNETHICAL of a business person to ask for more money. In my case, my supplier’s shopping cart system undercharged me for shipping. He sent the stones anyway, and came to me looking for the balance of the undercharge.

At this point, things just became unethical. There is consumer protection for things like this. I could, and my Research Partner in Japan may well, report my Toishiya-san to the Government.

So, if you are ordering things from Japan and an issue comes up after you’ve paid, there may be reason to remind your vendor of “The Bye-bye Clause” in Japan’s Consumer Protection.

I’ll be looking for alternate stone resources in the near future.

A calculated risk

As you might expect, I’m buying my stones from a supplier in Japan. His English is spotty at best, and my Japanese is sufficient to order sushi and get myself into a lot of trouble. Periodically, he does not answer my questions and I suspect that is due to the language barrier and the lack of capacity of online translation programs.

I’ve seen some of his descriptions of items come up as amazingly rude things when run through Google Translator. I can only imagine what must happen if he runs my stuff through similar programs.

Be that as it may, I do understand a little about the culture and some of the social expectations. As a person that wants to purchase from him, especially as a small quantity customer, taking a more submissive attitude toward him is good form. He’s got the power because he has things I want.

HOWEVER, socially speaking, if I give him that position, it is incumbent upon him (as a good business person) to deal with me honorably. It is the Lord/Vassal relationship brought down to a personal level. I’m allowing him power and giving him my loyalty as a customer, in return it is his job as Honyama Toishi Sama (Lord Authentic Japanese Polishing Stones) to “take care of me” to the best of his ability.

I just wrote him a note that is a calculated risk in this kind of interaction. I told him that I have X amount of money to spend and I would like him to randomly choose stones that would add up to that amount, because I want to offer interesting things to my customers. I put my loyalty in his hands with the cultural expectation that he will “take care of me” (dozo yoroshiku).

If he understands the request, linguistically speaking, and agrees to do this, I will be obligated to buy this random selection of what he’s willing to sell to me at that price.

A risk, but a calculated one, knowing that he has never failed to meet my expectations in the quality of what I’ve bought.