Article 29 of Japan’s School Health and Safety Act requires every school to prepare a kiken-tō hasseiji taisho yōryō, a manual for responding to dangers. Suited to the conditions of the school, it sets out the specific actions and the steps that the staff must take when a danger arises.
Touchdown Rehearsals
Before the space probe Hayabusa2 first touched down on the asteroid Ryugu, JAXA ran a series of touchdown rehearsals. In one, on October 14 and 15, 2018, the probe descended to about 22.3 meters above the surface to check the accuracy of its navigation and guidance. This test had been planned for an earlier rehearsal, but a sensor failed to switch modes.
In the next rehearsal, from October 23 to 25, the probe fed its laser range measurements back into its control. The first touchdown was postponed to January 2019 or later.
Mizuho’s Failures
In July 2019, Mizuho completed the move to MINORI, a new core banking system developed after a major system failure in 2011. Between February 28 and March 12, 2021, Mizuho Bank had four system failures.
In June 2021, the bank published the report of its investigation. Among the causes, the report named a lack of training for system failures. It also found causes in common with the failures of 2002 and 2011.
Creative Ideas at Toyota
In 1951, Toyota began an activity in which employees submit creative ideas for improvement. Today it is called the sōi kufū teian seido, the creative idea suggestion system. In March 1953, Toyota adopted the company slogan Yoi shina, yoi kangae, good products, good ideas.
The cumulative number of suggestions passed one million in 1974, ten million in 1984 and forty million in 2011.
Small Things Piled Up
In October 2004, Suzuki Ichirō broke the major league record for hits in one season. Afterwards he said: Chicchai koto o kasaneru koto ga, tondemonai tokoro ni tadoritsuku tada hitotsu no michi nan da na to, ima, kanjite imasu. “Now I feel that piling up small things is the only way to reach an extraordinary place.”
Sources give his words in slightly different forms.
Proverbs of Patience
Chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru (塵も積もれば山となる): even dust, piled up, becomes a mountain. Very small things, when many of them pile up, become something large.
Ishi no ue ni mo sannen (石の上にも三年): three years even on a stone. A cold stone grows warm when a person sits on it for three years. Patient endurance always brings success.
Isogaba maware (急がば回れ): if in a hurry, go around. A safe, sure way reaches the goal sooner than a dangerous shortcut.
Three Years of Rice
Meshitaki sannen, nigiri hachinen: three years cooking the rice, eight years shaping the nigiri. The saying describes the long apprenticeship of a sushi chef.
On October 29, 2015, the entrepreneur Horie Takafumi attacked it on Twitter: “Sushi restaurants that are any good today don’t do such leisurely training. Sense matters more.” The news site J-CAST reported on the dispute that followed.
Minor Change
Mainā chenji (マイナーチェンジ): minor change. A small revision, especially a partial model change of a car.
Furu moderu chenji (フルモデルチェンジ): full model change. A complete change of a car’s model, together with improvements in its functions.
The Unchanging and the Changing
Fueki ryūkō (不易流行): the unchanging and the changing. It is a principle of haikai poetry in the school of Matsuo Bashō. A Japanese dictionary explains it this way: the changing fashion that seeks novelty is in fact the unchanging essence of haikai, and the unchanging and the changing must be joined at the root.
Another dictionary notes that no example of Bashō explaining it himself is found. His disciples Kyorai, Dohō and Kyoriku developed it in their writings on haikai.
Curriculum Every Ten Years
Japan’s national curriculum guidelines, the gakushū shidō yōryō, took their present form as an official notice in 1958. The Ministry of Education says that since then they have been revised about every ten years.
The ministry’s page lists revisions in 1989, in 1998 and 1999, and in 2008 and 2009, followed by a partial revision in 2015.