Sometimes words hurt. But an NKK Corp. employee is trying to ensure that the language fellow workers use at the major steelmaker does not discriminate against people.
The term "sabetsu-ka," or differentiation, has been absent from official NKK documents for four years, ever since Ryo Takeuchi, chief of NKK's human rights education section, pointed out that some people are uncomfortable with the word because it is similar to "sabetsu," which means discrimination.
Takeuchi said on the company's electronic bulletin board on Nov. 27, 1996, that it does not necessarily mean somebody is discriminating against someone else when they say sabetsu-ka.