In 2022, after Japan lost to Croatia in the FIFA World Cup, the Japanese manager Hajime Moriyasu bowed deeply to the fans. The image went around the world. A friend of mine in Brazil messaged me almost immediately: was he apologizing because they lost?

I said no. He was bowing to show gratitude. To the fans who had traveled, who had stayed up through the night, who had cared. The team had lost, and the response was a bow.

That distinction — gratitude, not apology — tells you something important about お辞儀, ojigi, the Japanese bow. It is one gesture that carries many different meanings depending on context, depth, duration, and who is bowing to whom.

What a bow can mean

Bowing in Japan communicates gratitude, respect, greeting, apology, acknowledgment, and farewell — often without a word spoken. The depth of the bow and how long it is held signal the weight of the moment. A shallow nod between colleagues passing in a corridor is casual acknowledgment. A deep, sustained bow from the waist is formal respect, serious apology, or profound gratitude. The longer and lower the bow, the more it means.

Men typically bow with hands at their sides. Women with hands clasped in front. The back stays straight, the gaze drops. It is a practiced gesture — something learned early and refined over a lifetime.

How early it starts

From the first grade, every class in Japan begins and ends with a bow. Students bow to the teacher; the teacher bows back. Before school sports matches, both teams bow to each other and to the referees. Japanese companies spend time in new employee orientation teaching the proper bow for different business situations — there are specific angles for different levels of formality.

It is not something you think about after a while. It simply becomes part of how you move through the world. I notice this most clearly when I am on the phone — I bow to the person on the other end, even though they cannot see me. The gesture comes before the thought.

The bowing construction sign

One of my favorite things about bowing in Japan is this: construction site signs often feature a small illustrated figure bowing in apology for the noise and inconvenience of the works. The sign cannot move. The construction company is not present. But the bow is there anyway, on behalf of the disruption.

That image has always felt very Japanese to me. The acknowledgment that your presence in a space — even when necessary — creates an imposition. And that the right response to an imposition, even an unavoidable one, is a bow.

Something deeper than etiquette

Bowing is sometimes described as a form of etiquette, which is true but incomplete. Etiquette is about following rules. A bow, at its most genuine, is something else — an acknowledgment of another person's presence, their effort, their patience. It says: I see you. I am grateful. I respect what you have done or endured.

The Brazilian friend who messaged me about the manager's bow eventually understood, I think. The team had given everything. The fans had given their time and loyalty. In that moment, with the tournament over, what else was there to do but bow?