Direct Observation Archives - understand-culture

A Hundred Times to the Scene

Genba hyakkai (現場百回): the scene a hundred times. Japanese detectives use the phrase for a basic rule of investigation. The detective goes back to the scene of the crime again and again.

An article on the business site Gentōsha Gold Online gives the rule in full: Jiken wa genba de okite iru. Kihon wa genba da. Saitei hyakkai wa genba ni itte genba ni tachikaette sōsa shiro. “The incident happens at the scene. The basics are the scene. Go to the scene at least a hundred times, go back to the scene, and investigate.”

Learn the Pine from the Pine

Matsu no koto wa matsu ni narae, take no koto wa take ni narae. “Learn about the pine from the pine, and about the bamboo from the bamboo.” The words come from the haiku poet Matsuo Bashō. His disciple Hattori Dohō recorded them in Sanzōshi (Three Booklets).

Dohō explains what the master meant: shii o hanare yo, leave personal intent behind.

Sketching from Life

The haiku poet Masaoka Shiki called on poets to practice shasei, sketching from life. The magazine Waraku writes that his idea of shasei had direct or indirect links to Western-style painters, among them Nakamura Fusetsu, Shimomura Izan and Asai Chū.

In 1894, Shiki asked Shimomura to draw the illustrations for the haiku column of the newspaper Shō-Nippon. Shimomura declined, and the work went to Nakamura.

Visit and Investigate

In third grade, Japanese pupils study the production and sales work in their own area. The national curriculum for elementary schools, the Course of Study issued by the Ministry of Education, tells them how. They are to kengaku chōsa shitari, visit and investigate, and look things up in maps and other materials. Then they summarize what they found on a blank map.

In fourth grade, the same instruction returns for the public services that support people’s health and living environment.

On-Site Headquarters

Under Article 25 of Japan’s Disaster Countermeasures Basic Act, the national headquarters for an extraordinary disaster can set up a hijō saigai genchi taisaku honbu, an on-site headquarters. It works inside the affected area and carries out part of the national headquarters’ work there.

The Noto Peninsula earthquake struck on January 1, 2024. At 11:22 p.m. that day, the government set up an on-site headquarters inside the Ishikawa prefectural government building, headed by a senior vice-minister of the Cabinet Office.

The Incident Is Not in the Conference Room

The film Odoru daisōsasen the Movie (Bayside Shakedown) opened in Japan on October 31, 1998. It earned 10.1 billion yen. In it, the hero, a police detective, shouts: Jiken wa kaigishitsu de okiteru n ja nai! Genba de okiteru n da! “The incident is not happening in the conference room. It is happening at the scene!”

Frontline Strength

Genbaryoku (現場力): the strength of the front line. A Japanese business training site defines it as the power to solve problems on site.

The 2018 white paper on manufacturing of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry adds that genbaryoku is not limited to the production floor. Every place where people carry out an activity can be a genba. The white paper says that this strength is thought to be akin to kaizen and suriawase.

Jishuken

Jishuken, the voluntary study group on the Toyota Production System, began inside Toyota. Managers from manufacturing, production control and production engineering found problems on the shop floor in a single day, pointed them out to the supervisors, and then worked with the floor every week on improvements.

Because the results were large, the activity spread to suppliers. Today it is mainly joint study among suppliers.

Go and See

Genchi genbutsu means the actual place and the actual thing. A Japanese university bulletin says that a deep understanding of a situation requires looking directly at the facts on the front line, in the spirit of genchi genbutsu.

The same bulletin tells a story about Ohno Taiichi of Toyota from his years as a plant manager. He was famous for carrying chalk in his pocket. When a machine did not perform as expected, he drew a circle on the floor with it and gave an order: Soko ni tatte mite ore. “Stand there and watch.”

The Vocabulary of Seeing for Oneself

Sangen shugi (三現主義): the principle of the three actuals. Genba, the actual place. Genbutsu, the actual thing. Genjitsu, the actual facts. Problems are solved by observing the thing at the place, not at a desk.

Hyakubun wa ikken ni shikazu (百聞は一見に如かず): a hundred hearings are not worth one seeing. Seeing something once with one’s own eyes teaches more than hearing about it many times.

Tatami no ue no suiren (畳の上の水練): swimming practice on the tatami. Practice that is all theory and of no real use.