It used to mean 'sensing what someone wants'. Since 2017 it means political corruption.

What a Japanese person actually thinks
Instantly political. It was the buzzword of the year in 2017 and it has stayed that way — the word now carries a heavy stink of currying favour and institutional rot.

Meaning

Literally: surmise + measure
Actually: Acting on someone's unstated wishes. An obscure literary word until the 2017 Moritomo Gakuen scandal, when it became the national shorthand for bureaucrats doing favours for the powerful without being asked.

Scores

Naturalness●●●●●

Correct word. The meaning shift is recent, total, and negative.

Coolness●●●●●

Two interesting, rare characters. The connotation is now unusable.

Watch out

highSince 2017 this is scandal vocabulary. To most Japanese adults it means sucking up to power, not sensitivity.

Get this instead

察し sasshi
picking up on what someone hasn't said

The genuine social skill, with no political baggage. 察しがいい is a real compliment.
以心伝心 ishin denshin
heart to heart, without words

Wordless mutual understanding, as a classical four-character idiom. Beautiful, and exactly the good version of this idea.

On skin

忖度

Orientation: either

N/A — the connotation has moved.