Warikan Custom In Japan

Culture in a country is the result made by the specific customs based on the thoughts of the people, if it is true, to try to look out for the specific custom of a country where you visit is a joyful challenge during your traveling time. When I visited foreign countries I experienced the different customs from Japan and I was happy to know it.

Many anthropologists say that Japanese culture is especially different from cultures of other countries. Then foreigners visiting Japan will feel pleasure by finding out the different customs from their countries.

Warikan is the one specific Japanese custom. Warikan is to split the bill among members who ate dishes and drank in restaurants and it is generally a popular custom in Japan.

I have a foreign friend who has been in Japan from Australia and I sometimes have drinking parties with him. He knows Japanese customs but perhaps his true sense depends on western customs. At paying the bill when I suggested “sloping warikan” to him as a matter of course because I am older than him, he, who has lived in Japan for a long time, always got bewildered by my suggestion at the moment. Exaggeratedly speaking, it was the moment when two different customs between Japan and Australia conflicted.

Then, let’s look at a warikan scene, and let’s feel Japan. So I will describe a warikan scene. 

If you want to see a warikan scene you should go to popular drinking and eating restaurants which are called “izakaya” in Japanese. As an izakaya has a lot of types of dishes and alcohol and they are basically cheap, whoever drinks and eats at an izakaya can spend their time comfortably. Many various Japanese group, consisting of school friends of a university, employees of a company, parent mates related with their children and so on, enjoy to communicate in their group by eating and drinking at an izakaya. And at payment time they begin to do warikan, splitting the bill. The scene is as following.

A drinking party is going to finish. A representative who is a person of the group calls to a restaurant worker to check the bill. 

After receiving the bill, he calculates the divided number from the amount of money for each person to pay. He announces the number to the members, and each member passes the money to their representative. He counts the gathered money and adjusts excesses or shortfalls in order to decide equally. At last the representative pays the bill at the restaurant. It is the standard warikan, and the young group will do this standard warikan. Among these actions paper money and coins come and go around the members. All you need to do is only to see these scenes. You will be able to feel that here is a different country.

Moreover when members of a drinking party are adult women you might be able to see a more interesting scene. They might say to each other before warikan. 

“Today was so much fun! Thank you so much for participating in “my” drinking party. Then today is my treat”; Someone says so.

“No thank you. Today was my treat because of “my” party.”; Another woman says that.

In Japan many old people want to pay the bill as their treat. It is occasionally based on the true thoughts or occasionally on etiquette. Generally the atmosphere of the party will lead to the finish whether it will be a treat, a sloping warikan or a standard warikan. Till the finish the behaviors among them are intensive, polite, moderate or thankful. You can see natural Japanese language by sharing drinking time and money.

Why was warikan method made? I don’t know the reason but I think there is a strange Japanese thought in warikan method. It is to pay more than one’s duty but not to pay less than one’s duty. Of course in the case in which someone invites other members, that the inviter should pay all is generally common sense. However in many drinking parties who is the inviter is unclear. So I think warikan was invented in order to pay the bill smoothly.

Exactly speaking for a person who ate and drank less, it is unfair to pay money along warikan, but many Japanese, especially the elderly, think that paying more is better than paying less. Can you share my idea?