NEW YORK — In most countries, sleeping on the job isn’t just frowned upon, it may get you fired.

紐約——在大多數(shù)國家，工作時間睡覺不僅會讓人不滿，而且有可能讓你被炒魷魚。

But in Japan, napping in the office is common and culturally accepted. And in fact, it is often seen as a subtle sign of diligence: You must be working yourself to exhaustion.

但在日本，在辦公室打盹很常見，而且得到文化上的認可。事實上，它常被微妙的看作勤奮的象征：你肯定是工作得太累了。

The word for it is “inemuri”. It is often translated as “sleeping on duty”, but Dr Brigitte Steger, a senior lecturer in Japanese studies at Downing College, Cambridge, who has written a book on the topic, says it would be more accurate to render it as “sleeping while present”.

日語中稱呼這種行為的詞匯是“inemuri”。它通常被翻譯為“工作時間睡覺”，但劍橋大學唐寧學院日本研究的高級講師Brigitte Steger博士稱，將它譯作“在場睡覺”會更準確。

That, she said, captures Japan’s approach to time, where it’s seen as possible to do multiple things simultaneously, if at a lower intensity. So you can get credit for attending that boring quarterly sales meeting while also dreaming of a beach vacation.

她表示，這種翻譯表達出日本人對待時間的方式。在日本，人們認為同時做多件事是有可能的，盡管專注度會降低。所以你能夠一邊參加枯燥的季度銷售會議，一邊幻想海灘度假。

Inemuri is most prevalent among more senior employees in white-collar professions, Dr Steger said. Junior employees tend to want to stay awake all day and be seen as energetic, and workers on assembly lines can’t just nod off.

Steger表示，Inemuri在高級白領中最為普遍。初級職員往往想整天保持清醒，希望被看作充滿活力，而生產(chǎn)線上的工人根本沒法打盹。

Both sexes indulge in inemuri, but women are more likely to be criticised for it, especially if they sleep in a position that is considered unbecoming, Dr Steger said.

斯蒂格還提到，兩種性別的人都喜歡inemuri，但女性更有可能因之受到指責，尤其是在一個小睡會被視為不得體的職位上。

Inemuri has been practised in Japan for at least 1,000 years, and it is not restricted to the workplace. People may nap in department stores, cafes, restaurants or even a snug spot on a busy city sidewalk.

inemuri在日本已經(jīng)存在至少1000年，并且不限于工作場合。人們會在百貨公司、咖啡館、餐館，乃至熱鬧的人行道上溫暖舒適的地方小睡片刻。

Sleeping in public is especially prevalent on commuter trains, no matter how crowded; they often turn into de facto bedrooms. It helps that Japan has a very low crime rate.

公共場所打盹的情況，在通勤列車上尤其常見，不管里面有多擁擠;那些地方往往會變成實際意義上的臥室，這得益于日本犯罪率非常低。

“It’s very unlikely, if you are sleeping on a train, that someone would try to rob you,” said Dr Theodore C Bestor, a professor of social anthropology at Harvard University.

“你在車上睡覺時，不太可能出現(xiàn)打劫的情況，”哈佛大學社會人類學教授Theodore C Bestor博士說。

Sleeping in social situations can even enhance your reputation. Dr Steger recalled a group dinner at a restaurant where the male guest of a female colleague fell asleep at the table. The other guests complimented his “gentlemanly behaviour” — that he chose to stay present and sleep, rather than excuse himself.

在社交場合睡覺甚至可以提高你的聲譽。Steger記得有一次在一家餐館聚餐，一位女性同事的男同伴趴在桌子上睡著了。其他客人稱贊了他“紳士行為”——因為他選擇留在那里休息，而不是先行離開。

One reason public sleeping may be so common in Japan is because people get so little sleep at home. A 2015 government study found that 39.5 per cent of Japanese adults slept less than six hours a night.

在公開場合小睡在日本如此普遍的一個原因是，人們在家里睡覺時間很少。2015年的一項政府調(diào)研顯示，39.5%的日本成年人每晚睡眠時間不足六個小時。

An unwritten rule of inemuri is to sleep compactly, without “violating spatial norms”, Dr Bestor said. “If you stretched out under the table in the office conference room, or took up several spaces on the train, or laid out on a park bench”, he said, that would draw reproach for being socially disruptive.

inemuri不成文的規(guī)則是占地不大，不會“打破空間規(guī)范”， Bestor教授說。“如果你在會議室的辦公桌下躺著，在車上擠占了好幾個位置，或在公園長椅上躺著，”他說，那便會因為造成社會干擾而引來指責。

Dr Steger pointed out that closed eyes may not always equal shut-eye: A person may close them just to build a sphere of privacy in a society with little of it.

Steger博士指出，閉眼可能并不總是意味著在睡覺：一個人閉上眼睛可能只是為了在沒什么隱私的社會構(gòu)建一個私人領域。

That’s part of why Dr Steger said she could imagine inemuri waning in Japan. These days, smartphones can transport people to their own private zones with their eyes wide open.

Steger博士表示，這也是她預計inemuri在日本會逐漸減少的部分原因。如今，智能手機可以讓人們睜著眼進入自己的私人空間。