Japan Has Found a Solution to One of America’s Most Pressing Problems


It’s such a big problem that a plethora of mobile apps have been created in an effort to solve it.

Yes, we’re talking about tipping your waiter.

No one ever knows exactly how much to tip, and if the cost should be shared by everyone at the table, or not.

Well, turns out that the Japanese have a solution to this particular problem.

They don’t tip.

Not with money, anyway.

Japanese patrons will happily leave a kind word with a good waiter, but it would be viewed as bizarre in the extreme to hand them some small amount of money for the service.

That’s why a national firestorm erupted recently when a novelty stationary maker introduced “Kimo Tip.”

The Japan Times described the product thus:

These pieces of paper resemble a bank check and come complete with an introductory line saying, “Pay to the order with.” The slips of paper also include messages such as “I really enjoyed the meal” or “I appreciate your kindness,” while including a space for users to leave their own personalized notes as well.

It was just meant to be a cute take on how Japanese tip their waiters in relation to Westerners, but locals weren’t amused.

The report continues:

Users on Twitter and various message boards weighed in on how ridiculous the concept was, imagining how a worker in the hospitality sector would more than likely feel irritated at the extra waste they had to clean up or highlighting the ridiculousness of writing an actual monetary amount on what amounts to being an imaginary check.

AbemaTV devoted an entire news segment to the debate, complete with a list of pros and cons (the wasted paper, don’t forget about the wasted paper!).

However, an online roast-a-thon isn’t complete until the spotlight finally falls on the person responsible for the furor, and it didn’t take long for users to trace the product back to “Kimo Tip Ojisan.” Atsushi Matsuoka’s Twitter account is now private but before he locked it up, netizens could find posts on his timeline of intricate thank-you arrangements and attempts to justify his novelty creation. By the time Kimo Tip became the talk of the town, the product was quietly removed from Hi Mojimoji’s online store.

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