Yeah, this kinda shit is fucking hilarious but people don’t realize it. There’s this corporate training BS called Kaizen where they take a lot of normal Japanese words like 無理 (muri) and associate weird Eastern mystic significance to them.
Literally just means “impossible” and is frequently used in slang to be like “no no no I couldn’t possibly [talk to that hot guy]”. Having it put up on a slide and presented by some white dudes in suits who were nodding solely and talking about the secret Japanese knowledge was just too much to bear.
I fucking hate Kaizen. I had to go through it as part of a job placement program and was convinced it was a cult. Like no, I am not going to call “Leaving a reminder for myself” a Gemba. I’m calling it a note because the japanese didn’t fucking invent the idea of writing things down for later.
It’s all the same bullshit as six sigma with their black belts and shit. Or if you are devops the utter trash called “Agile”.
How can you say Six Sigma is bullshit?
It’s literally just a method of identifying a problem, measuring and analyzing its impact, and implementing a lasting solution.
The difference between the six sigma method and traditional organizations is that:
- Six sigma gives power to experts (instead of middle managers), * It involves staff who are actually doing the work
- It tests solutions before they’re implemented
- It acknowledges that many things can’t be forced top-down by the boss
They didn’t invent the idea of comic books either, so why do we call them “manga” if they come from Japan?
Manga are a kind of comic, they’re just pretty specific about their format and choices. Anime is a kind of animated cartoon, it’s just specific about its choices. Even “coming from Japan” isn’t a requirement as long as it follows those traditionally(-ish) Japanese choices.
God damn I just tried to read the Wikipedia page on Kaizen and I have never seen so many words used to describe nothing.
You say that probably because many components in it look like common sense.
“Duh, of course the response to a problem should be to rectify it” (simplifying slightly)
Lots of companies don’t though. Or they jump to a conclusion about the best solution. Or some middle manager decides he knows what’s best and then proceeds to break things.
It’s quite useful to have a philosophy that gives authority to non-traditional but logical steps.
I mean, that’s what people do with models and methodologies right? In my language English terms are used when using an English methodology.
Kaizen comes from Japan, was developed in Japan, and it was quite successful there. It’s not that strange to copy it word for word.
The idea behind it is quite different from what tends to happen in traditional Western companies. Since companies want to be better than their competitors and organizational change is hard, it makes sense to look for ready-made tools, rather than try to reinvent the wheel.
Of course, since (organizational) change makes many employees nervous, depending on how the organization goes about it Kaizen could get a bad name.
Assassinating people is frowned upon? Shiiiiiit, son, next you’ll tell me these barbarians get pissed when their shit is stolen!
What a strange and beautiful land
Interesting cultural paradigm for a people that spent centuries genociding others.
I love Japanese architecture and Japanese food. And I’ve watched my fair share of anime and read my fair share of manga.
Anyone who doesn’t know how terrible Japanese culture is to outsiders needs to educate themselves, there’s a reason they sided with Hitler. That culture never really went away like it did for Germany. Talk to an actual Japanese person, who went to school in Japan and see how much they know about their war crimes, and then talk to a German.
I don’t think it’s that worse than other countries tbh. It’s amplified by the fact that it’s an island so foreigners are scarce and a lot of them are there for weeb tourism and may not be the best to interact with, but racism is a constant in most countries all around the world.
They do need to acknowledge their war crimes though, sure. I agree Nationalism is definitely a bigger issue in Japan than in most other countries.
It’s amplified by the fact that it’s an island so foreigners are scarce
First off, in these times, being an island doesn’t mean anything, so that is not an excuse actually. Second, I have heard that their own policy regarding taking non-Japanese in made them a bit more isolated.
So, I knew a girl who went to a Japanese international school in my South East Asian home country where the Japanese did some utterly horrendous things during WWII. She told me the school took them to a war museum kinda place on a field trip and basically shouted at them like “LOOK AT WHAT YOUR PEOPLE DID!” until the whole room of grade school kids were crying about how sorry they were. So at least outside of Japan there seems to be some (perhaps over the top) education about the atrocities committed by the Japanese government to Japanese students, but I agree, most of the Japan educated Japanese people I’ve spoken to are just vaguely aware that they did some bad stuff before they got nuked.
Centuries? I knew their bad period started roughly around the Meiji Era and stopped after WWII, in regards to killing people, but that hardly constitutes centuries
stopped after WWII
That’s what they and the Western governments legitimizing hyper-nationalist holocaust-deniers like Abe for geopolitical reasons want you to think, but in reality there’s still a lot of fuckery going on, to use the technical term.
Can you point to something I can read on this? I don’t want this to sound like “I doubt what you’re saying”, I just know little about Japan after WWII and didn’t think full scale genocides were going on. Of course, even after the wars, Japan does not have the best record regarding, uh, being nice to other ethnic groups.
Well the 12th century and the Sengoku period were probably worse than the early Meiji period in terms of violence.
Yes, but I wouldn’t call it genocide. I don’t know, I’m not defending them for their crimes in the past century, but the original comment is a little hyperbolic.
