Arab News Japan

TOKYO: In a country where strict formality is compulsory rather than optional, making a mistake on an honorific is a direct insult, so when a city in Japan forgot to address its citizens correctly, an apology was bound to follow.

Chiba Nippo Online reports the case of Inzai City in Chiba Prefecture to the west of Tokyo, which forgot to add the honorific suffix “sama” to the names of addressees when it sent out 19,231 notifications for municipal tax earlier this month.

“Sama” is more than just addressing someone as “Mr.” or “Mrs.” and might be translated as “the honorable Mr. or Mrs.” It is standard practice to add “sama” to people’s names when communicating with customers.

The city became aware of its mistake after receiving a call from a computer company in the prefecture that was contracted to carry out the tax notification work. Until last year, the honorific was printed on the notice format, but this year it was changed to a nationally standard format and the honorific should have been printed on the notice.

It wasn’t and 19,231 were insulted.

“We deeply apologize for sending out such rude notices to taxpayers,” the city said via its website. “We will strive to prevent this from happening again in the future.”