Item — HN Reader

I've never been to Japan, but whenever I read these articles, I am reminded of the Japanese word 'Kaizen' which means to continuously improve your work. The way I understand it is to step outside of yourself while working and to see your output as to how it will be perceived over time and from an outsider's point of view and ask from that person's point of view what could be done better. I might be wrong, but to me, as a programmer, it is like seeing the code that I've written and see if it is simple to debug and simple to understand for people who will see it after me. A kind of stepping away from our creation.

Previously, there was another article on this [1]. And the corresponding HN thread [2]. And also a wonderful comment [3].

[0] Kaizen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen

[1] https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200114-why-japan-is-so-...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22055867

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22061001

1 comments

This might come off as somewhat pessimistic but I actually think Japan is one of the worst implementers of Kaizen anywhere. Japanese are famously conservative in how they work, with employees largely avoiding taking on any responsibility and spreading out tasks and checks. The end result being no-one really stands out, but also that no-one is ever really singularly "at fault" as every decision and check is daisy-chained.

It's horribly inefficient but exactly what a lot of people want in their jobs here. Kaizen is an example of executives and people who occupy the top of the chain mostly just pontificating and getting high off their own airs and mostly empty words with no internal policies or actions behind it imo. Most famous example in the Japan expat community of this would be somewhere like Uniqlo or Rakuten - horrible places to work with CEOs who like to roleplay as the next Steve Jobs.

I love this country, but these articles foreigners write without ever actually having worked in real Japanese companies with mostly Japanese natives always come off as a bit naive to me.

I've always felt that Japanese companies were very big on process because their management actually isn't very good otherwise. Promotions and status are much more based on seniority rather than merit.

As for the people at the top, they do seem to have more than their fair share of god complexes. I notice this a lot with their academics too. The average japanese person is so respectful and humble, it's like they overcompensate when they are in charge.

I'm under the impression that the "kaizen" philosophy is often about the product of one's work rather than the process.

Off the top of my head, there are two examples: the Fujifilm digital cameras (where you may have a totally different camera than the one you bought, thanks to firmware updates bringing in new features) and the Shimano bicycle parts (where improvements continuously come to top-shelf product lines, then trickle down to cheaper lines).

I wouldn't point any specific companies. It is highly subjective. I know people working in both - Rakuten and Uniqlo - who are happy with their jobs. Those are big companies and, the same as in the West, all is down to luck. If you happen to work with decent people you'll be fine.

Whenever I've heard of kaizen in Western media it is usually applied to Toyota, who applies it in manufacturing.

With the caveat that I have also never worked in a Japanese factory floor, that might be the difference between white and blue-collar work in Japan.