internal approval document; circulated proposal
A formal document circulated within a Japanese company or organization to obtain approval from relevant staff for a decision, policy, or expenditure. Common in traditional office settings.
Before starting a new project, we must circulate a ringisho and get approval.
It took a week to get all the necessary stamps on the ringisho.
Standard kanji form for this business document.
Variant kanji form using 禀 instead of 稟; less common but recognized.
Compound of 稟議 (ringi, 'consultation-based decision-making') and 書 (sho, 'document'). The term reflects traditional Japanese corporate culture where proposals are circulated for consensus.