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You may have heard the word “こだわり” (kodawari) around, on the TV or radio, especially during those food shows Japanese TV lovers are so fond of. But what is こだわり? Its dictionary definition is somewhere along the lines of “fussing over, obsessing over”, and that’s not far from the mark.
こだわり is an uncompromising attention to detail. You’ll notice this everywhere you go in Japan – from the meticulous way food is beautifully prepared and presented, to the carefully crafted art on simple things such as manhole covers. You can hardly bite into an pastry over here without feeling like you’re desecrating a valuable artwork… They are almost invariably finely decorated with attention paid to the smallest details.
The spirit of こだわりalso extends to other aspects of Japanese culture. Japanese businessmen are painstakingly serious about their work – such things as careless mistakes are few and far between. This might have something to do with the impression a lot of people seem to have that products in Japan are simply made better than elsewhere. They say the devil is in the details, after all!
