Do people in Japan still do Dogeza?

Or is it an ancient thing? If people still do it, what would be an appropriate situation to do it?

The only instances I know in modern Japan where this may be done are when candidates for local municipal government elections bow to their local supporters (in local settings) to plead please please vote for them (political world is a strange world), and when an irrationally angry customer at a store demands a store clerk to do that to apologize, which can be sued as harassment.

Yes, I did it a couple of month ago, in the rain. I don't think it was appropriate, but I couldn't help it. It's a free country. People are free to appologise in whatever form they wish to (or can't help to). The person I did it to seemed quite shocked of course, and our relationship has turned out kind of awkward since then. We're both Japanese, if it helps.

when candidates for local municipal government elections bow to their local supporters (in local settings) to plead please please vote for them (political world is a strange world)

I've never seen that happen, and I wouldn't vote for anyone who does that.

Uco-san,
You've never seen those photos of candidate's meetings (in pretty rural areas) with the supporters and the candidate himself or the wife sitting on the floor doing that to ask for their support one last time? :) I am rather surprised that you did it yourself, by the way. But it is true, everyone is free to express their apologies in their ways.

We've had something similar (although perhaps not quite a full head-touching-floor movement, although there was certainly a very deep seated bow) from a maid in a ryokan in the past.

I remember the kneeling and bowing (just inside the threshold of the room) routine accompanying every entrance and exit into the room when the maid was coming in and out to serve us dinner. I found it a little odd/embarrassing/uncomfortable (I don't really want anyone to prostrate themselves in front of me), but I told myself that it was a way of showing polite respect and hospitality, and that I should try to respectfully accept it in that manner - even if I did find it a bit weird in the context of my own, Western, informal, culture.

It was a very service-orientated ryokan, with some other unusual/old fashioned features, and I've not had anything like it since.

Okay, now you guys really know how weird I am (seriously). And sorry I don't pay attention to election "campaigns." I only listen to what they have to say about politics, not how many times they rant their names.

Sarcasm to the politicians aside, let us clarify what "dogeza" is. According to the dictionary, it's an act of pressing yourself against the ground not the floor, and today it is used as a gesture of apology.
http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/158466/meaning/m0u/

From a quick internet image search, I do now realize that politicians do bow on the ground too (not just the floor), so I have nothing else to say about that to the anonymous guest.

But I don't think that what Winter Visitor describes is dogeza. That's just a formal and typical bow that is expected when we're sitting on tatami floors. I do that all the time. I think most Japanese residents do it from time to time, and everyone does it in tea ceremonies. Hey, I bet many people just did it for their New Year greeting.

On the other hand, dogeza means that you're pressing your trouser knees, your bare hands and forehead against a place where people walk on with their muddy shoes. Maybe a dog even shxx there. It's kind of like kissing Jesus on his foot. You're expressing utmost respect to the other party by humiliating yourself, except that the biggest purpose in this case is to apologize instead of thanking or honoring or what not.

In that sense, I'm not really sure if we call those election gestures "dogeza". They are begging instead of apologizing, although I notice that the general public still tend to call that dogeza. Either way, the maid's greeting on the tatami is clearly not dogeza.

Back to the topic, I'm not even sure if ancient people did dogeza any more than modern people do, because if it were so common it wouldn't work as a "rarely sincere" apology.

But dogeza would surely be more natural in a lifestyle where we sit on the floor. On the other hand, when a modern company makes some kind of a big mistake and does a press conference about it, they do it in a chair setting. So the bosses of the company would typically stand up and bow deeply, which is the formal Japanese apology in a chair setting. They usually would not do dogeza in front of the press people sitting in chairs.

However, as suggested there are yakuza-like people who make others do dogeza, and then there are people like me, so yeah, dogeza is still done.

So sorry. I misunderstood.

Uco, you have a talent for writing just enough to make me sick with curiosity. :p

I appologize if I offended anyone. I am terrible when it comes to making my writings short.

m(_ _)m

Technically, dogeza means to kneel (down) on the ground
http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E5%9C%9F%E4%B8%8B%E5%BA%A7
So, an indoor kneeling (as a maid does at ryokan) is not dogeza but a sort of ojigi.

with the recent tragedy of the bus accident in which so many young university students died, the owners of the bus company did dogeza during the press interview/apology