本期外刊精读选自The Economist关于日本职场欺凌的文章Japan’s bullying bosses

职场欺凌是一个全球性的问题，但这一问题在日本尤其严重，这是因为日本职场更加讲究论资排辈，等级观念严重。为了减少职场欺凌现象，日本最近通过法律，要求公司建立职场欺凌举报制度。但批评者认为考虑到日本的现状，这样的法律并没有多大约束力。

文章小标题Anger management有双关作用，它字面含义是“愤怒管理”，可以指日本的企业管理者要学会控制自己的情绪，同时management还可以指“（公司的）管理层”，Anger management理解为“让公司管理层感到愤怒”。下面是关于文章的详细分析：

首段以本田创始人为例子说明日本职场的欺凌现象。

As honda soichiro built his company from a small producer of engines to attach to bicycles into a global carmaking giant, he developed a reputation as a talented engineer and a maverick executive. He was also known to be an exacting boss, even a violent one.

在本田宗一郎将他的公司从一家小型自行车电机生产商发展为一家全球汽车制造巨头的过程中，他作为一名才华横溢的工程师以及特立独行的领导者也因此出名。他为人所知的另一点是他是一名严厉甚至暴力的老板。

Exacting在这里的意思是“严格的，要求高”，意思类似于demanding，He was also known to be an exacting boss, even a violent one. 这里用one来代替前半句提到的boss，这样可以减少用词重复，这也是我们写作中可以借鉴的手法。

同时，这里写本田宗一郎用的是He was also known to be...而不是He is also known to be... 这是因为他已经于1991年去世了，所以需要用过去时态。

“When he got mad, he blindly reached for anything lying around, and started throwing whatever was in reach randomly at people,” one former executive later recalled.

一名前高管后来回忆说：“当他生气时，他会随手抓住摆在近旁的任何东西，并开始向人们随意扔东西。”

Such fiery tempers remain all too common among Japanese managers. A Japanese psychologist even coined a term to describe the particular abuse that the country’s supervisors pile upon some of their employees: pawahara, or power harassment.

这种暴烈的脾气在日本经理人中非常普遍。一名日本心理学家甚至创造了一个术语来描述该国公司主管对他们一些雇员施加的虐待：pawahara（或权力骚扰）。

all too在这里相当于very，但它通常用在负面语境中来描述某个不好的现象很频繁，很容易发生等。

Coin在这里是作为动词使用，它的意思是“杜撰（新词或新的表达）”。

第二段介绍了日本政府应对职场权利骚扰采取的措施。

Complaints of harassment in the workplace have been growing in recent years, hitting a record high of 82,797 in 2018, up from 32,242 a decade earlier.

关于职场骚扰的投诉近年来一直在增加，在2018年创下82797起的历史新高，而十年前这一数字为32242。

这一句提供了一个常见的描述数据的句式：XX has been growing…hitting a record high in…up from… 比如“近年来大学毕业生人数不断上升，从十年前的500万上升到2020年的900万，达到了历史高峰”，可以说：

The number of college graduates has been growing in recent years, hitting a record high of 9 million in 2020, up from 5 million a decade earlier.

In 2016 the country’s labour ministry found that a third of Japanese workers had experienced power harassment in the past three years. The trend worried the government enough to spur recent passage of anti-harassment legislation.

日本劳动省在2016年发现，有三分之一的日本员工在过去三年中遭受过权力骚扰。这一趋势让政府感到很担心，也因此促使它通过了最近关于反骚扰的立法。

As of June 1st, Japanese firms are required to have clear policies in place and to create internal systems for reporting and verifying claims of abuse.

自6月1日起，日本公司必须制定明确的政策，并建立可供举报和核实职场骚扰指控的内部系统。

As of/from XX 是一个固定搭配，意即“从……某一时间起”，比如：As of now, there will be no more paid overtime. 从现在起不再有加班费。

第三段对职场骚扰的定义进行讨论。

At the extreme end, workplace bullying can still include physical violence of the sort displayed by Honda. More typically, it manifests itself in all manner of verbal, emotional and psychological abuse.

在极端情况下，职场欺凌仍然可以包括像本田表现出的那种人身暴力。更典型的情况是，职场欺凌以各种语言、情感和心理虐待的形式表现出来。

XX of the sort 是个常见搭配，意思是“类似XX一样的事物”。

Japan’s labour ministry defines six categories of power harassment: physical attacks, mental attacks, social isolation, excessive demands, demeaning demands and privacy infringements.

日本劳动省定义了六类权力骚扰：人身暴力攻击、精神攻击、社会孤立、过度要求、侮辱性要求以及侵犯隐私。

Suicides linked to power harassment are not uncommon. Cases cut acrosssectors and classes.

与权力骚扰相关的自杀案例并不少见。这些案例出现在各个行业和各个社会阶层。

Cut across是个固定搭配，意思是“影响，涉及（两个或多个群体）”，例如：Domestic violence seems to cut across most social divisions. 家庭暴力似乎存在于大部分的社会阶层。

One MP from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party resigned from the party after a recording surfaced that allegedly captured her hitting an assistant as well as calling him “baldy”.

执政党自由民主党的一名议员从党内辞职，因为一份流出的视频录像据说拍到她打了一名助手，并称该名助手为“秃子”。

…a recording surfaced that allegedly captured her hitting an assistant as well as calling him “baldy”. 这句话谓语surfaced被提前了，这样可以避免头重脚轻的问题，还原后相当于：a recording that allegedly captured her hitting an assistant as well as calling him “baldy” surfaced.

第四段解释了日本职场欺凌比其他国家严重的原因。

Although bad bosses are a universal phenomenon, Japanese workplaces can be particularly conducive to the worst sort of behaviour. Hierarchies are rigid and deeply rooted.

尽管遇到坏老板是一个普遍现象，但日本的职场环境特别容易滋生最为恶劣的职场欺凌行为。日本职场的等级观念僵化且根深蒂固。

XX is conducive to something 是一个写作常用表达，意思是：XX有助于某事，XX为某事提供了有利的条件，例如“学校致力于提供一个有利于学习的环境”，可以说：The school tries to create an environment that is conducive to learning.

What bosses see as tough love can come across as hurtful to junior employees, especially as behavioural norms change between generations, says Inao Izumi of Cuore c Cube, the consultancy that first defined pawahara.

稻尾泉是咨询公司Cuore c Cube的员工（该公司最早定义了pawahara这一名词），她说：“在老板们眼中那种严厉的爱在基层员工看来可能会对他们造成伤害，尤其是行为准则在不同代人之间有所变化”。

Come across是一个固定搭配，意思是“给人以……的印象”，这里也提供了一个很好用的句式：What…see as tough love can come across as hurtful to… 比如在教育话题中可以说：What parents see as tough love can come across as hurtful to their children.

The inflexibility of Japan’s labour market compounds the problem. “People can’t easily quit if they hate their boss and companies can’t easily fire bad bosses,” says Rochelle Kopp of Japan Intercultural Consulting.

日本劳动力市场的僵化加剧了这一问题。日本跨文化咨询公司的罗谢尔·科普说：“如果员工讨厌他们的老板，他们也不能轻易辞职，而公司也不能轻易解雇坏老板。”

结尾段分析了新法规的不足之处。

Critics counter that the new law is both too vague and too toothless to help put-upon workers. Small and medium-sized firms do not have to comply until 2022.

批评者反驳说，新法律由于过于模糊以及无约束力而无法帮助那些吃亏的工人。中小型企业可以等到2022年才遵守新法。

Toothless通常用来指法律、机构等没有约束力，比如：This well-intentioned but toothless law will do nothing to improve the situation. 这项用意良好但没有约束力的法律对改善局势没有什么作用。

The law does not apply to part-time workers, who make up more than a third of the Japanese labour force. Nor does it specify punishments for harassers, leaving it up to companies to decide what action to take.

该法律没有覆盖到占日本劳动力三分之一以上的兼职工人。它也没有具体规定对骚扰者的惩罚形式，而是由公司决定采取何种措施。

“The law merely warns offenders—it’s like a yellow card,” says Kaneko Masaomi of the Workplace Harassment Research Institute. Until bad bosses have to worry about being sent off the pitch, their untoward actions are unlikely to stop.

职场骚扰研究所的金子正美说：“法律只是对骚扰者给出了警告——就像只给出了黄牌。” 在糟糕的老板们不得不担心因骚扰而被辞退前，他们的不良举动不太可能会停止。

Pitch字面含义是“（足球场等）运动场地”，off the pitch即“场下”，somebody is sent off the pitch在这里引申为“某人被辞退”。