A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)

Post by sudo_cowsay » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 10:51 PM UTC

0x3f wrote: post #17

bigwheels wrote: post #13

Fascinating culture and raises numerous questions arising from my subsequent confusion: 1. > 返し箸 Kaeshibashi (also known as 逆さ箸 sakasabashi) > To turn the chopsticks around when serving food so that the tips of the chopsticks that have touched one’s mouth do not touch the food. Does this mean it is preferable to use the tips that may have touched mouth to then serve more food? Or is this considered fine because it's…

> Just proceed to eat some splinters, then? What is the good etiquette way to handle low quality el-cheapo chopsticks? Well first of all the chopsticks are joined at the non-eating end, typically. So the splinters would be bothering your fingers more than anything. It's rude because it insults the host, in a way. Anywhere that would care about you doing it should not be giving you the cheap chopsticks in the first pl…

Post by floren » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 10:57 PM UTC

waffletower wrote: post #40

cthalupa wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The splinters come from where they break apart and there's not really any reason to have that part of the chopsticks touching your skin. But you move away from break apart disposable chopsticks in Japan long before you get to high etiquette dining. In my experience, basically every restaurant in Japan that isn't of, like, fast food tier, provides actual chopsticks instead of disposable ones.

I had mostly disposables but they were actually lathed wood. The crude rectangular cut chopsticks are terrible -- usually not for splinters, but they often break imperfectly, leaving you with two sticks with different lengths.

Post by helterskelter » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 11:02 PM UTC

unsignedint wrote: post #39

The article does a good job calling out the more serious offenses, although I’d personally argue that nigiribashi is just as bad as the other two. Most Japanese people would probably react with a bit of shock to those. That said, chopstick etiquette is definitely evolving. Something like chobujubashi isn’t enforced as strictly anymore, especially with more awareness around left-handed users. Kaeshibashi, on the other…

Post by kibwen » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 11:04 PM UTC

0x3f wrote: post #29

wagwang wrote: post #9

Always interesting to see the analogs of island vs continental culture when comparing UK America and Japan China. Seems like islanders, due to their reliance on trade, naturally get specialized and autistic about their craft so they can have a comparative advantage, and their obsessions carry over into stuffy traditional practices.

I counter with the American swap-the-fork-hand-after-you-cut thing. Diabolical.

Post by Sprotch » Fri, Mar 20, 2026, 11:05 PM UTC

morkalork wrote: post #18

0x3f wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most of these are common sense. A lot of them are not common sense at all. Even the 'serious' ones require cultural knowledge to understand. Only a subset of the rest would be un-ideal across cultures, which is what I would use to measure 'common sense'. It's like how in some asian cultures it's rude to bring the bowl closer to you by lifting it off the table, and in others it's the opposite. And of course there's…

A bunch of the common sense ones, like not pointing at someone with your ustensiles, are the same in western etiquette.