The Contract Ceremony

When was the last time you read an entire contract before you signed it? The answer is likely never if it was over a few pages long. Well in here in the land of Japan the Japanese have a way around reading all that fine print, they have someone read it to you. Yes that's right the gentleman you see sitting across from me is a licensed contract reader.

Now while my contract reader could speak English, the contract (for the lease on my apartment) was in Japanese. Thus for an hour and a half I sat as he read every last detail of the contact, pausing occasionally for me to sign on the dotted line. Occasionally I would understand a word here or half a sentence there, but over all the characters on the pages and the words floating into my ears made absolutely little sense. It was one of those classic foreigner in Japan moments. Both sides knew this served no purpose, but because somewhere out there was a rather thick dusty old book stating this had to be done, we had to do this.

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When the “ceremony” was finally over I ask the contact reader, "How many of these contracts do you typically have to read a day." The contract reader thoughtfully paused for a moment, then replied, "No more than four contracts a day." "Does you voice get tired," I asked. He smiled and said, "Usually, no."