Japan, Quality, Mistake Response

Prevention Measures That Did Not Work

In 2016, a special investigation committee reported on improper fuel economy testing at Mitsubishi Motors. It considered that many points were in common with the causes and background of the company’s earlier recall cover-ups. After those cover-ups, the company had taken measures to prevent a repeat. They neither corrected nor prevented the new problem.

The committee wrote that the earlier prevention measures had been of no use at all in preventing the problem or finding it early. Because the case of 2004 had concerned the improper handling of quality information, the company’s awareness of the problem had stayed limited to quality information.

The Vocabulary of Surface Fixes

Kusai mono ni futa o suru (臭い物に蓋をする): to put a lid on what stinks. The magazine DIME explains the proverb as covering the source of a bad smell, instead of removing it, so that the smell does not escape. It means hiding what is inconvenient, so that it does not come to light.

Taishō ryōhō (対症療法): symptomatic treatment. In medicine, it treats the symptoms, not the cause of a disease. The Daijisen dictionary gives a second sense: handling a matter by responding to what appears on the surface, apart from a fundamental solution.

Apology and Measures

On January 23, 2026, Prudential Life Insurance held an apology press conference after more than 100 current and former employees had improperly received money. Its management apologized and explained the company’s saihatsu bōshi-saku, measures to prevent recurrence.

A public relations column in the business report of a Japanese regional bank gives the order for a written press release on such trouble. It opens with an apology, then sets out the course of events, the facts, the response to customers and the measures to come. For press conferences, the column warns against wording that sounds like an excuse.

The Vocabulary of Excuses

Iiwake (言い訳): an excuse. Explaining after a failure that there was no other choice, in order to justify oneself. Iiwake suru na: no excuses. A common rebuke to someone who has failed.

Kuchigotae (口答え): talking back. Answering a parent, teacher or boss argumentatively. Herikutsu (屁理屈): fart logic. Forced reasoning made to fit.

Chikara busoku (力不足): lack of ability. Used of oneself in apologies, as in watakushi no chikara busoku de, through my lack of ability.

Five Whys

Taiichi Ohno, the former Toyota vice president regarded as the father of the Toyota Production System, published Toyota Seisan Hōshiki in 1978. In it he wrote that by asking why five times and answering each time, one can find the chain of cause and effect and the real cause hidden behind a problem.

Toyota employees are drilled in the method from their first days as new hires.

Failure Knowledge Database

On March 27, 2003, the Japan Science and Technology Agency released a trial version of its Failure Knowledge Database. It held about 560 cases of accidents and failures in four fields of science and technology.

The project collected and analyzed such cases and organized their lessons as knowledge to be shared. It was supervised by the engineering professor Hatamura Yōtarō.

Safety Promotion Center

On April 24, 2006, Japan Airlines opened its Safety Promotion Center for the safety education of JAL Group employees. It displays remains of the aircraft of Flight 123, which crashed in 1985: the rear pressure bulkhead, the front part of the vertical tail, part of the rear fuselage, and seats.

Japan Transport Safety Board

The Japan Transport Safety Board investigates aircraft, railway and marine accidents. Article 1 of the law that set it up states its purpose. The board investigates the causes of accidents and of the damage they cause, and asks for measures based on its results, in order to help prevent accidents.

Article 18 adds that the board’s investigative powers must not be interpreted as granted for criminal investigation.

Yamaichi’s Last Press Conference

On November 24, 1997, the president of Yamaichi Securities, Nozawa Shōhei, faced reporters at the Tokyo Stock Exchange as the firm announced it would close. In tears, he apologized and said: Shain wa waruku arimasen kara! The employees are not to blame!

Accounts of his exact words differ. Another version has him say: “We are the ones at fault, so the employees are not to blame.”

I Haven’t Slept

In 2000, milk products from Snow Brand caused mass food poisoning in the Kansai region, with 14,780 people affected. Pressed by reporters, president Ishikawa Tetsurō snapped: Sonna koto ittatte nē, watashi wa nete inai n da yo!! “Say what you like, I haven’t slept!”

He apologized at once. The exchange was broadcast widely and drew public condemnation. After the press conference, all Snow Brand Group products were pulled from sale for a time.