Japan’s influences to the world! More than Kaizen and Kimono.
Since I lived in Japan for a long time before I moved to US, I thought I know a lot about Japan, its amazingly unique culture, super polite manners, extreme high level of quality for almost everything they produce. After 7 years in US, now I know more about the great influences and contributions Japan made to this world culturally, you may wonder how sure I could be about it? My answer is simple — see these Japanese words now as part of English vocabulary.
Part 1 — Business World
Kanban : a key part of TPS(Toyota Production System), or known as Lean Manufacturing. Kanban means “visual board, visual card” was introduced by Toyota after WWII to catch up and eventually surpass other developed countries(esp. US) on automobile manufacturing productivity.
Kaizen: Constant and continuous and proactive improvement. A concept referring to business activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. Kaizen is the Sino-Japanese word for “improvement”.
Dojo: (道場, Japanese pronunciation: [doꜜː(d)ʑoː][note 1]) is a hall or place for immersive learning or meditation. This is traditionally in the field of martial arts, but has been seen increasingly in other fields, such as meditation and software development. The term literally means “place of the Way” in Japanese. — Wikipedia
Dojo is a highly popular term used by high tech community in US. Eg. Tesla has its own Dojo as the supercomputer powered virtual simulation for its FSD(Full Self Driving) AI training.
Part 2 — Food & Drink: Sushi, Ramen and Sake etc.
Part 3 — Sports: Judo, Karate and Sumo
Part 4 — Fashion: Kimono(着物), Harajuku(原宿)
I really love Japan’s highly diversified cultures and believe it will keep making positive impact to this Earth village with its natural uniqueness.
