How to Read “Taking a cut from a tanuki”
Tanuki kara jōmae
Meaning of “Taking a cut from a tanuki”
“Taking a cut from a tanuki” is a proverb that describes the shrewd act of cleverly skimming profits from gains that someone else has already obtained.
It refers to situations where someone takes advantage of profits another person worked hard to earn, or where an additional party swoops in to grab benefits from a transaction that already has intermediary fees.
This proverb is used when criticizing situations involving multiple layers of profit-taking, or when someone cleverly secures their own share by piggybacking on profits others have already gained.
It doesn’t simply mean taking an intermediary fee. Rather, it expresses the cunning and shrewd behavior of spotting someone else’s profits and skillfully extracting even more from them.
Even today, the meaning of this expression resonates when criticizing businesses with multiple layers of middleman margins, or when people try to profit by riding on others’ achievements.
Origin and Etymology
The origins of “Taking a cut from a tanuki” don’t appear in clear historical records, but we can make interesting observations from the phrase’s components.
First, let’s look at the word “jōmae” (cut). This was a business term used since the Edo period, referring to fees or commissions that intermediaries took during transactions. It meant deducting and taking a portion from the original profit.
So why the “tanuki”? In Japanese folktales and legends, tanuki were depicted as animals that deceived people. Stories about business and money especially featured tanuki cleverly tricking people to gain profits. The tanuki symbolized shrewd, cunning behavior.
This expression describes the act of cleverly securing one’s share from a situation where someone has already gained profits.
Like a cunning tanuki, spotting others’ profits and taking a cut from them. The phrase likely combines the image of the tanuki with business terminology to express the extraction of profits in multiple layers.
It may have emerged during Edo period merchant culture as a sarcastic way to describe such shrewd business practices.
Usage Examples
- That contractor takes a cut from the prime contractor, then charges additional fees from the subcontractor—it’s exactly like taking a cut from a tanuki
- He slips into other people’s business deals from the side and secures his own share, just like taking a cut from a tanuki
Universal Wisdom
The proverb “Taking a cut from a tanuki” has been passed down because it offers sharp insight into the multilayered structure of profit-seeking in human society.
Humans naturally seek fair compensation for their labor and effort. But at the same time, they also desire to gain maximum profit with minimum effort.
Between these two desires, people sometimes feel tempted to piggyback on others’ hard-earned results.
What’s interesting is that this proverb doesn’t just point to “gaining profit,” but specifically to “taking more from profits someone else has already gained.”
This reveals the truth that human desire has no limits. Once profit emerges, people gather around it one after another. Each tries to secure their own share.
This creates multiple intermediate layers between the original value creator and the final beneficiary.
Our ancestors embodied this social structure in the image of the tanuki. The tanuki’s shrewdness and cunning perfectly mirror humans who sniff out profits and maneuver cleverly.
This proverb concisely captures both the instinctive human pattern of profit-seeking and the complexity of the social structures it creates.
When AI Hears This
Demanding a share from an uncaught tanuki is remarkably irrational from a game theory perspective. After all, zero multiplied by anything equals zero.
Yet humans treat unrealized profits as “existing assets” and begin distribution negotiations.
What’s fascinating is that negotiating over imaginary profits actually hinders the cooperative action of “catching the tanuki”—the original goal.
Imagine two people planning to catch a tanuki together. If they argue “I get 60%, you get 40%” before the capture, the dissatisfied party might not cooperate fully.
In other words, fighting over dividing zero can destroy even the possibility of turning zero into one.
Behavioral economics calls this an error in “mental accounting.” The human brain tends to mistake uncertain future rewards for money already deposited in the bank.
Experiments show that when people decide distribution before receiving rewards, conflicts become more intense than when they divide after actually receiving them.
This proverb teaches a paradox: negotiating profit distribution during high uncertainty actually lowers the probability of success.
In cooperative games, “produce results first, then divide” is actually the rational strategy that maximizes everyone’s benefit.
Lessons for Today
“Taking a cut from a tanuki” teaches us the importance of thinking about the flow of value and our position within it.
We live daily within various transactions and relationships. What matters is the honesty to discern whether we’re truly creating value or just riding on others’ efforts.
Intermediation and coordination certainly have value, but we need to keep asking whether they’ve become excessive and whether our share is justified.
At the same time, this proverb offers a consumer’s perspective. How much middleman margin is included in the price of goods and services?
Are the people truly creating value receiving appropriate compensation? Being aware of these structures helps us make wiser choices.
Ultimately, this proverb teaches the value of integrity. Acting shrewdly might bring short-term profits.
But in the long run, truly creating value and earning fair compensation is the sustainable and respectable path.
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