Ringi - The Decision-Making Process
If you work in a Japanese company, you will probably hear the word "Ringi" a lot.
The term Ringi refers to the bottom-up decision-making process in the Japanese management system. Specifically, it means getting approval for various projects from multiple related teams and departments within the company. For example, in order to obtain approval for a contract with a new business partner or for the purchase of a company car or computer, a "Ringi-sho" document describing the purpose, benefits, and cost of the contract is circulated within the company for approval.
Traditionally, Ringi-sho was paper-based, but recently, more and more companies are using the electronic format. However, such a consensus-based decision-making system can take up to a month to reach a final decision because of the involvement of multiple parties. For this reason, Japanese companies are sometimes viewed negatively for taking too much time to make decisions.
Japan's unique business culture is a factor
You may be wondering why it takes so long to make decisions. The reason is related to Japan's unique business culture.
In Japan, internal transfers occur frequently within a company, and the top management team is not always an expert in their department. Therefore, they do not understand the actual field and work, making it difficult to make decisions or very dangerous to make decisions unilaterally. Therefore, in order to make the right decision, the opinions of team members who understand the field are key.
In addition, no job is completed by one person from beginning to end in Japanese companies, and all work is carried out in cooperation with teams, departments, and the organization as a whole. Therefore, it is necessary to make decisions based on the consensus of multiple teams and departments.
Advantages of "Ringi"
While there is a disadvantage that the Ringi is time-consuming, it also has the following advantages.
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![Reduction of unnecessary meetings]()
1. Reduction of unnecessary meetings
ButtonRingi-sho is circulated across departments from the person with the lowest position to the highest, such as:
"the person in charge ➜ immediate superior ➜ department head ➜ .......".
Since approval can be obtained from multiple people, there is no need to hold a meeting with all concerned parties, thus reducing time and human costs.
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![Ringi - Reflect the voice of the employees]()
2. It can reflect the voice of the employees
ButtonSince it is basically the employees on the frontline who write the Ringi-sho, the Ringi strongly reflects the voice of the people on the frontline.
In this way, it can be said that the Ringi system is suitable for Japanese companies that work in groups.
The "Ringi" system, which is a business custom unique to Japan, has the image of taking more time than necessary, but it also has the positive aspect of reducing unnecessary meetings and enabling decisions to be made that reflect the voice of the frontline. The decision-making process where everyone expresses their opinions and reaches consensus is one of the good points of Japanese companies.
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