In May 1965, NEC launched what it named the ZD undō, the Zero Defects movement. Its president, Kobayashi Kōji, had seen the ZD mark during a visit to Hughes Aircraft in the summer of 1964. ZD stood for a slogan about doing work without defects.
Kobayashi wanted more than a movement against defects. He also wanted to awaken a sense of participation in the company among ordinary frontline employees.
Many Japanese workplaces use 5S, five words that begin with the letter s in Japanese: seiri, seiton, seisō, seiketsu and shitsuke.
A Japanese business glossary defines them in turn. Seiri is separating what is needed from what is not, and getting rid of what is not. Seiton is deciding where and how each thing is kept, so that it is easy to use. Seisō is cleaning, so that work can begin at once. Seiketsu is keeping the first three in place. Shitsuke is making the habit stick.
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.
On October 18, 1999, Nissan, led by Carlos Ghosn, announced the Nissan Revival Plan. The plan called for cutting about 21,000 jobs worldwide and closing five plants in Japan, among them the Murayama plant.
Sources differ on which other plants were on the list.
Toyota’s association of parts suppliers, the Kyōhōkai, was founded in December 1943. Its first chairman was Akai Hisayoshi.
It grew out of an earlier association, the Kyōryokukai (Cooperation Association). That name was given in November 1939, at the first meeting with subcontractors in the Tōkai region.
Japan’s Subcontract Act, enacted in 1956, forbids a parent company to reduce the agreed price it pays a subcontractor. If it does, the Japan Fair Trade Commission can recommend that it stop and restore the losses the subcontractor suffered.
From January 2026, the law carries a new name, the Act on Ensuring Fair Transactions with Small and Medium Contractors.
Toyota negotiates with steelmakers such as Nippon Steel, buys steel in bulk, and sells it at low prices to its affiliated parts makers. The price of this supplied steel is reviewed every six months. It is linked to the cost of raw materials such as iron ore and coking coal.
In April 1962, the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers launched a magazine for the factory floor, Genba to QC. In its first issue, Ishikawa Kaoru introduced the QC circle, a small group in one workplace that carries out quality control on its own initiative.
The definition describes managing and improving the workplace continuously, with everyone taking part.
On a Toyota assembly line, a worker who notices a problem activates the andon and calls a supervisor. If the problem can be fixed on the spot, the line keeps running. If not, the line stops at a set position.
The system rests on three conditions. A worker can call. When someone calls, a person always comes. The person who called is not blamed.
In 2000, it became known that Mitsubishi Motors had hidden defect reports from customers and repaired vehicles in secret.
On January 10, 2002, a wheel came off a Mitsubishi truck in Yokohama and struck a mother and her two children. The mother, 29, died. The company blamed poor maintenance. In March 2004, it withdrew that explanation and announced a recall. In April 2004, police arrested seven former top executives of Mitsubishi Motors and Mitsubishi Fuso.