My American coworker Courtney asked our Tokyo office a question nobody had asked in 41 years. "Wait. When's everybody's birthday?" Nobody knew. Not one person. In a Japanese office, your birthday is private information, like your blood pressure. Courtney is from Oklahoma. She took this personally. She went desk to desk with a notebook. People were suspicious. One man asked if it was for a background check. She made a calendar and stuck it on the office fridge with a magnet shaped like Oklahoma. Then the cakes started. Every birthday. Big grocery-store sheet cakes, with frosting in colors that do not occur in Japanese food. She made everyone sing. Japanese people do not know how to sing "Happy Birthday" in an office. We sang it like a company anthem. Standing. Very straight. Facing the cake. By spring, cake day was the highlight of every month. People started leaving work on time on cake days. Our productivity went down. Our turnover went to zero. There was one blank on the calendar. Mr. Kanemoto. Our department head. 63. Forty-one years at the company. The most serious human being on our floor. He refused to give her the date. "Men my age do not have birthdays," he said. "We have years of service." Courtney called his wife. On April 9th, he walked in at 7:58 a.m., like always, and the lights were off and the whole floor was waiting, holding a cake that said HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. K!!! with three exclamation points and a frosting drawing of what Courtney said was a samurai. We sang. Very straight. Facing the cake. Mr. Kanemoto stood frozen in the doorway with his briefcase. Then he set it down, removed his glasses, and pressed his sleeve to his eyes. Later, he told me quietly that it was his first birthday cake since he was nine years old. In September, it was Courtney's birthday. At 7:58 a.m., the lights were off again. Mr. Kanemoto had bought the cake himself. The first cake he had ever bought in his life. He had asked the bakery to write HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURTNEY in English. They ran out of room. It said HAPPY BIRTH. She keeps the photo on her desk. He pretends not to see it. He sees it every day.