tokenism; appearance for appearance's sake
Refers to the practice of making only a superficial effort to include members of minority groups or to appear fair, without genuine commitment. Often used in social or organizational contexts.
The company's tokenism cannot be said to truly respect diversity.
Tokenistic policies won't solve the fundamental problems.
建前 refers to the public facade or official stance, while 建前主義 is the ideology or practice of relying on such facades, especially in a tokenistic way.
Compound of 建前 (tatemae, 'public facade; official stance') and 主義 (shugi, 'principle; doctrine'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the term likely emerged in modern Japanese to describe tokenistic practices.