The Japanese are well-known to be perfectionists in various aspects of their work. Non-Japanese who work with them, either as employees or suppliers, need to be familiar with one of the key techniques they use for pursuing perfection, “saihatsu boshi.”
Translated literally, this means “prevention of reoccurrence.” But the simplicity of this phrase belies the deep significance it has for many Japanese. Of course, people everywhere can agree that making sure problems don’t happen again is a good thing. However, the Japanese have developed a structured process for doing this. And they often express frustration when working with people from other cultures who do not take this approach and thus run the risk of the same problems cropping up again. In Japan, saihatsu boshi is simply accepted standard behavior, and anything else would suggest unprofessionalism or lack of commitment. Thus, in order to optimize their relationships with Japanese, it’s useful for non-Japanese to adopt this technique.
The article goes on to describe the process in detail. I highly recommend you read the entire piece if you ever plan to go to Japan or have dealings with anyone from Japan as they’ll be very impressed with your ability to understand Saihatsu Boshi.
Jeff also points out that there are more interesting-looking articles on cross-cultural relations with Japan here.
