I loved reminding my irate customers (in perfect keigo) that the expression “The customer is God” in fact came from Enka singer Minami Haruo, who first used it in an interview to describe how a singer should sing to their audience “as though they were praying at an alter; as though the customer were a god” and not to indicate that “the customer is always right”. It didn’t calm them down, but it did disarm them of the “You’re not Japanese so you don’t understand Japanese culture” card.