心理的安全性

• Reading: しんりてきあんぜんせい
• Romaji: shinriteki anzensei
• Kanji breakdown: 心 (mind) + 理 (reason) + 的 (adjective suffix) + 安 (peace) + 全 (complete) + 性 (nature) → psychological safety
• Pronunciation: /ɕiɴ.ɾi.te.ki aɴ.zeɴ.se.i/

Meaning

Psychological safety — the belief that you can speak up, make mistakes, and share ideas without fear of punishment or humiliation at work.

Popularized by Google's Project Aristotle findings, 心理的安全性 became one of Japan's biggest workplace buzzwords in the 2020s. It resonated deeply because Japanese workplaces often suffer from rigid hierarchies, fear of speaking up (空気を読む culture), and punishment for mistakes. Companies now cite it in management training, though critics note the gap between using the term and actually creating safe environments.

Examples

1. 心理的安全性がない職場だと、誰も意見を言わなくなるんだよね。 In a workplace without psychological safety, nobody ends up voicing their opinions.
2. うちのチーム、心理的安全性が高いから何でも言いやすい。 Our team has high psychological safety, so it's easy to speak freely about anything.
3. 心理的安全性って最近よく聞くけど、実践できてる会社は少ないと思う。 You hear a lot about psychological safety these days, but I think few companies actually practice it.

Usage Guide

Context: business, management, HR training

Tone: professional, aspirational

Do Say

• 心理的安全性があるチームは成果も出やすい。 (Teams with psychological safety tend to produce better results.)
• 心理的安全性を高めるには、上司がまず自分の失敗を認めること。 (To build psychological safety, managers should first admit their own mistakes.)

Don't Say

• 「心理的安全性」を言い訳にして何でも許す、というのは誤解 (Using 'psychological safety' as an excuse to tolerate anything is a misunderstanding of the concept)

Common Mistakes

• Thinking 心理的安全性 means everyone is always nice — it actually means healthy disagreement is safe
• Using the term as corporate lip service without changing actual behaviors

Origin & History

Translation of 'psychological safety,' a concept from organizational psychology popularized by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson and Google's Project Aristotle (2015). Became a major buzzword in Japanese business media from the late 2010s.

Cultural Context

Era: Late 2010s-2020s buzzword in Japanese management

Generation: Management and HR professionals, increasingly general awareness

Social background: Corporate environment

Regional notes: Used across all of Japan. Particularly impactful in a culture where speaking up against hierarchy is traditionally discouraged.