An article supervised by a business-manners instructor — asking whether it’s rude to snap a photo of your business partner’s face on your smartphone while exchanging business cards — drew a wave of reactions on 5ch.
The thread turned into a swap of real sales-floor tactics, debating the merits of handing out cards printed with your own photo, the trick of jotting someone’s distinguishing features on the back of their card, and even the compromise of just taking a photo together instead.
I Want to Remember Faces and Names → So I Photograph the Other Person on My Smartphone During a Business Card Exchange → Is That Rude? [A Business Manners Instructor Explains] | Yorozu News
2026.08.24 (Mon) Yumeshobo
Person A, who works in sales, frequently exchanges business cards with people they’re meeting for the first time, and for years has struggled with the fact that “faces and names just won’t stick.”
Source: yorozoonews.jp / Original article here
Same here.
Getting pretty sick of these made-up feel-good pieces.
That reminds me of Sandwichman (the comedy duo).
Nice bit of quick thinking.
As someone receiving one, that's actually really helpful.
I guess that's what makes a top-tier salesman.
Cuts out unnecessary awkwardness for both sides.
That's common at sketchy 'black companies.'
Pointless anyway since the person quits right after you get the card lol
I see those get dragged online and mocked all the time lol
That's going to turn into a real problem eventually.
Official line: 'for both our sakes.'
Real reason: 'for my sake.'
'A new sales rep is worthless unless the client remembers them!
Go hand out 100 photo business cards today!
Don't come back until every last one is gone!'
The Showa era was like the early town area in an RPG.
Even with lousy gear (= your product), you could brute-force your way through on sheer grit.
But as the era — the adventure — progresses, you need both a higher character level AND stronger gear (= product) to keep winning.
If your 'gear upgrade' is a business card with a photo on it instead of an actually stronger product, that's an unwinnable stage.
Businessmen should carry that same level of resolve.
That's called 'jingi wo kiru' (a formal yakuza-style self-introduction ritual).
Hold on, hold on, don't tell me you're just using a smartphone for this lol
At least set up a Canon DSLR with a proper backdrop sheet!
And while you're shooting, say 'good, good, that expression's great, hold it right there' lol
'Don't move now… oh wait, I hit the video button by accident (๑꒪͒∀꒪͒๑)'
True, you don't want to put the other person out, so a candid shot is the way to go! lol
Are you a sketchy-company employee who works the photo-business-card hustle?
A company like that should just be banned outright.
Anyone who can photograph other people without a shred of hesitation isn't even the same kind of human as me.
Fine, I'm a different kind of human then.
So what?
Fair enough, but that mindset doesn't sound suited for sales work, where putting your face out there is the whole job (´・ω・｀)
Arm around the shoulder, big smile.
I actually think that's a great idea.
If the sales rep is a woman, it really boosts the good impression, doesn't it.
'Fat,' 'bald,' 'short,' that kind of thing.
At first, writing stuff like that on a card was considered bad manners, but it beats forgetting who's who, so I started doing it too.
Blame job rotation — the person in charge changes way too often these days.
I do that too.
When I add someone to my contacts app,
I log where I met them and what they look like.
If you look back through these often enough,
just the first line on the back is enough to tell you who it is —
but it's unsettling when someone suddenly has way more hair than before.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “I Want to Remember Faces and Names → So I Photograph the Other Person on My Smartphone During a Business Card Exchange → Is That Rude? [A Business Manners Instructor Explains]”.
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