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

在大多数国家，工作时间睡觉不仅会让人不满，而且有可能让你丢掉工作。

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，在办公室打盹很常见，而且得到文化上的认可。实际上，它经常被看作勤奋的隐晦象征：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.”

日语中称呼这种行为的词汇是“inemuri”。它通常被翻译为“工作时间睡觉”，但剑桥大学唐宁学院(Downing College, Cambridge)日本研究的高级讲师布丽吉特·斯蒂格(Brigitte Steger)称，将它译作“在场睡觉”(日文写作“居眠”——译注)会更准确。布丽吉特撰写了一本有关这个话题的著作。

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，这种翻译表达出日本人对待时间的方式。在日本，人们认为同时做多件事是有可能的，尽管专注度会降低。所以你一边参加枯燥的季度销售会议，一边幻想海滩度假，也可以获得好评。

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.

斯蒂格表示，居眠在高级白领中最为普遍。初级职员往往想整天保持清醒，希望被看作充满活力，而生产线上的工人根本没法打盹。

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

斯蒂格还提到，两种性别的人都喜欢居眠，但女性更有可能因之受到指责，尤其是在一个小睡会被视为不得体的职位上。

Inemuri has been practiced 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.

居眠在日本已经存在至少1000年，并且不限于工作场合。人们会在百货公司、咖啡馆、餐馆，乃至热闹的人行道上温暖舒适的地方小睡片刻。

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.

公共场所打盹的情况，在通勤列车上尤其常见，不管里面有多拥挤;那些地方往往会变成实际意义上的卧室。这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 Theodore C. Bestor, a professor of social anthropology at Harvard University.

“你在车上睡觉时，不太可能出现打劫的情况，”哈佛大学社会人类学教授泰奥多尔·C·贝斯特(Theodore C. Bestor)说。

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 behavior” — that he chose to stay present and sleep, rather than excuse himself.

在社交场合睡觉甚至可以提高你的声誉。斯蒂格记得有一次在一家餐馆聚餐，一位女性同事的男同伴趴在桌子上睡着了。其他客人称赞了他“绅士行为”——因为他选择留在那里休息，而不是先行离开。

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 percent of Japanese adults slept less than six hours a night.

在公开场合小睡在日本如此普遍的一个原因是，人们在家里睡觉时间很少。2015年的一项政府调研显示，39.5%的日本成年人每晚睡眠时间不足六个小时。

An unwritten rule of inemuri is to sleep compactly, without “violating spatial norms,” Professor 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.

居眠不成文的规则是“占地不大”，不会“打破空间规范”，贝斯特教授说。“如果你在会议室的办公桌下躺着，在车上挤占了好几个位置，或在公园长椅上躺着，”他说，那便会因为造成社会干扰而引来指责。

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.

斯蒂格指出，闭眼可能并不总是意味着在睡觉：一个人闭上眼睛可能只是为了在没什么隐私的社会构建一个私人领域。

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.

斯蒂格表示，这也是她预计居眠在日本会逐渐减少的部分原因。如今，智能手机可以让人们睁着眼进入自己的私人空间。