Cool Japan's Latest 'Showa Hospitality Kit' Mistaken for 'Ultimate ZEN' Overseas and Sells Like Crazy

The experience-based board game “Showa Hospitality Kit (The Art of SETTAI),” developed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to broadcast the “spirit of Japanese hospitality” to the world, is recording explosive sales, primarily in North America.

Originally planned as a self-deprecating party game that takes advantage of Japan’s unique and complex manners, it has been accepted by overseas users with a profound misunderstanding as “advanced ZEN training to eliminate the ego by enduring absurdity.”

The kit consists of VR goggles, pressure-sensitive cushions, and beer bottle-shaped controllers with built-in accelerometers.

Players become “new employees” and must perform perfect hospitality for “difficult client department heads” and “ill-tempered old-guard executives” generated by AI.

The “Kamiza-Shimoza (Upper Seat/Lower Seat) Minesweeper” is considered particularly difficult. In situations that randomly change such as round tables, alcoves, taxis, and elevators, if you do not determine and secure the “lowest ranking seat” within 0.5 seconds, it is immediately Game Over and an electric current flows from the cushion.

In Silicon Valley, this harsh specification is being re-evaluated as a “mental gym.”

A man resembling Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of a major IT company, posted on SNS: “Pointing the beer label towards the heavens and pouring 0.1 seconds before the glass becomes empty. This ‘Endless Pouring’ mode is exactly the resilience we need to confront unpredictable markets.”

They call unreasonable reprimands (power harassment) “Koan” (Zen riddles), and praise the function of stamping seals at an angle to bow to the boss as “the aesthetics of inclination.”

The Cool Japan strategy officer who led the development is holding his head in his hands over this situation. “We intended it to include irony, like ‘Let’s laugh off such troublesome customs.’ We never imagined that the act of defending the position in front of the elevator buttons would be adopted into yoga classes as the ‘Guardian’s Pose’…”

Ironically, a reversal phenomenon is occurring where relics of the Showa era that Japanese people are trying to discard are being traded at high prices as cutting-edge mental training.

The domestic reaction is cold. On SNS, critical comments bordering on screams such as “This is just an overtime simulator” and “Are you planning to make me pay to relapse into PTSD?” are following one after another.

However, the government is defiant, saying “It may be a misunderstanding, but if it sells, it earns foreign currency,” and plans to release the expansion pack “Second Party Karaoke: The Rebellion of the Tambourine” next month.

The day when the world’s elites seriously learn the timing to read the room in hospitality karaoke is near.

Stakeholder Comments

• Silicon Valley Investor: “‘Sumimasen’ is not an apology. It is a mantra to regain harmony with the universe.”
• Development Team Japanese Programmer: “I spent 3 months just adjusting the random number generation for the boss’s mood parameter. It was hell.”
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs Official: “Result-wise, Japanese culture has spread, so we’ll call it good. However, it is unclear why they call Dogeza ‘Grounding (Connecting to the Earth)’.”
• In-game AI ‘Manager Tanaka’: “You, what is this pouring style? The ratio of bubbles is not 7:3. Do it again!”
• Yoga Instructor (living in NY): “I made a new course. It is ‘Settai Flow.’ Exchanging business cards in a half-crouch dramatically strengthens the core.”
• Young Japanese Employee: “I’d rather write a letter of resignation than read the strategy guide for this.”
• Showa Generation Ex-Salaryman: “In the old days, this was real. It’s nice that young people today can prepare with a game.”
• Board Game Critic: “90% of the rulebook consists of ‘Read the Air.’ It is a defeat of game design, and an artistic victory.”
• Robotics Engineer: “The precision of the sensor that measures the angle of the bow is unnecessarily high. Level capable of military diversion.”
• Izakaya Sake Bottle: “I never thought I would cross the ocean and be used as a tool for mental unification.”

International Expressions

Haiku

• Pouring the beer / Label facing up / Life on the line
• Where is the upper seat / If you hesitate, instant death / On the tatami
• Apologizing / Without knowing the meaning / Sumimasen
• Endless pouring / The banquet never ends / The path of Zen
• Stamping the seal / The angle of inclination / Love for the master
• Seating order / When solving the mystery / The wind shines
• Sontaku (Guessing) / A poem without words / Crossing the sea
• Manager drunk / Kill the self (ego) / Bend the knees
• Silicon / Echoing in the valley / The sound of hand clapping
• Unreasonableness / Loving and realizing / Showa style

Kanji / Chinese Characters

• 昭和接待道 (Showa Hospitality Way)
• 上座下座判定即死 (Upper/Lower Seat Judgment Instant Death)
• 無限麦酒注地獄 (Endless Beer Pouring Hell)
• 精神破壊的遊戯 (Spirit Destroying Game)
• 米国富裕層大流行 (US Wealthy Layer Big Trend)
• 理不尽即禅 (Unreasonableness is Zen)
• 空想上司土下座 (Imaginary Boss Dogeza)

Emoji

🙇‍♂️🍺👔➡️😵‍💫🧘‍♂️🇺🇸💹🏯🚫

Onomatopoeia

• Peko Peko, Hahaa! (Bowing repeatedly, “Yes sir!”)
• Toku Toku Toku… Pita. (Pouring liquid… stop.)
• Sheen… (Silence/Unspoken pressure).
• Biku! (Flinch!)
• Gami Gami Gami! (Nagging/Yelling!)
• Shu (Sound of taking out business card).
• Doon (Flipping the tea table).
• Kira Kira (Boss’s scalp shining).

SNS

• #TheArtOfSettai
• #SorryIsPower
• Lecture by Manager AI for 2 hours again today. Best morning.
• Mindfulness with the angle of the seal.
• Are all Japanese businessmen monks?
• #ShowaStyle
• Can’t see the upper seat… still lack of training.
• The “Taxi Boarding Order” in the expansion pack is too difficult.
• Throw away the ego, pour the beer.
• #CoolJapanFailSuccess