A
process participated in by
Japanese business-people to achieve a state of happy
equilibrium and
consensus known as
wa.
Ringi is a circular process where ideas for business activities are created by lower ranking employees who pass the ideas up the heirarchy for eventual migration to the chief executive's approval.
Corrections to the idea are passed back down to work their way up again. Wa is achieved when everyone is happy and comfortable with the initiative.
The ringi system is one reason why Japanese business processes seem to take forever to impatient westerners.