Glico Office Refreshment Box (product information)

Culture is often seen as something which is largely reflected in ritual, art, and customs. For me, I think that culture is really in the details of everyday life. In one culture, rice is washed and soaked. In another, it's just cooked straightaway in water. In one culture, people drink coffee with the grounds left in it and in another, they filter out any sediment for a clear brew. It's not just about food, of course, though that is one of those things that affects everyone. It's also about how we live each day including life in the office.

In America, I've been told that it's common in some companies (especially more successful ones) to provide snacks and drinks for free to all employees. The company will fill a refrigerator with soft drinks and cabinets with instant oatmeal. That was never my experience in Japan. The best we got was free tea bags, loose leaf tea, and the most dreadful coffee in the history of mankind.

Glico believes that Japanese offices should offer up some snacks for employees to enjoy and, to that end, have created this little office filing drawer system to provide. They say that sweets will increase efficiency or put something in your stomach when you're doing that unpaid overtime. Speaking of paying, Glico knows that Japanese companies aren't going to give you snacks for free. No. No. You're supposed to put 100 yen in the frog's mouth if you take something from the box. You have to admire that they have such confidence in the honor system as well as the fact that they built this system around chintzy office managers who won't give it up for free.