Translation guide
The act of shifting responsibility or blame to someone else, often to avoid accountability.
He shifted the responsibility for his own mistake onto his subordinate.
Literally 'to press responsibility onto someone'. More forceful and colloquial than 転嫁する. Implies unfairly making someone take the blame.
My boss always pushes the responsibility onto me.
Literally 'to pass around like a tub'. Describes the act of bouncing someone between departments or people without anyone taking responsibility. Often used for bureaucratic runarounds.
I got passed around at the government office, and in the end no one helped me.
Means 'to evade responsibility'. Focuses on the act of avoiding rather than shifting. Can be used when someone dodges blame without necessarily assigning it to another.
He's always trying to dodge responsibility.
To make another person take the blame for a failure or problem.
Literally 'to pin a crime on someone'. Strong expression for falsely blaming someone or making them take the fall.
He pinned the blame on an innocent colleague.
Idiomatic expression meaning 'to falsely accuse' or 'to frame someone'. The image is of putting a wet garment on someone, implying an undeserved stain on their reputation.
Colloquial and slightly rough. Means 'to shove responsibility onto someone'. Conveys a sense of unfairly dumping blame.
To redirect a request, complaint, or issue to another person or department instead of handling it.
Literally 'to toss the conversation'. Used when someone redirects a topic or question to another person, often to avoid answering themselves.
When asked a difficult question, I passed it to the person next to me.
Means 'to outsource entirely' or 'to dump a task on someone'. Often used in work contexts when someone hands off a project without proper briefing.
My boss dumped the whole project on me.
Japanese often uses passive voice or vague subjects to avoid directly assigning blame. This can be a subtle way of 'passing the buck' by not taking ownership.
There is no single Japanese idiom that perfectly matches 'pass the buck'. The expressions above capture different nuances. Avoid literal translations like バックを渡す, which is meaningless.
pass the buck (literal, incorrect)
転嫁する is neutral and often used in formal analysis (e.g., cost shifting). 押し付ける is more emotional and implies unfairness. Use 転嫁する for objective descriptions, 押し付ける when complaining.
Pass the cost on to consumers.
He always pushes the odd jobs onto me.
She was framed and forced to quit the company.
He tried to dump his failure on me.
Regarding that matter, could you ask the person in charge?