Nomunication

The in vino veritas approach to business communication prevalent in Japan. (A portmanteau of the Japanese word for drinking,nomu, and communication.)

Reporting for Bloomberg on alcohol abuse in Japan, Jason Clenfield wrote:

The country’s business and political culture has long depended on alcohol to smooth out differences between bosses and subordinates or between parties in a negotiation, Nozaki [managing director of Alcoholics Anonymous of Japan] said.

“Drinking is part of the job,” said Satoshi Miyazaki, an employee at a Tokyo advertising agency who says he accompanies his section chief to a bar most week nights. “If the boss invites you, you don’t feel comfortable saying no.”

The intimacy that drinking fosters between friends, clients and colleagues has given rise to a new word: “Nomunication,” a bilingual coinage combining the Japanese for drinking with communication.

(Nomunication has, in fact, been in use for a number of years: Google Books gives a range of examples.)