Technology
Bullet trains, fax machines and the design of daily life.
Kaizen is a business-book buzzword. What does it mean on a Toyota factory floor?
Self-help calls it small steps; consultants call it a system. On a Toyota line it means workers improving their own jobs. Where did that come from?
Why does the country of bullet trains still send so many faxes?
Japan runs bullet trains to the second, yet plenty of offices, clinics and city halls still send documents by fax. It is not because nobody has heard of email.
Why did toilets in Japan go high-tech, when most of the world's never did?
Heated seats, warm water, a button that plays the sound of a stream. Why did Japan's toilets turn into machines, and why hasn't the rest of the world followed?
The vending machine at the end of the lane
Elsewhere, vending machines tend to stand where people already are. In Japan you find one glowing beside a rice field. Here is who puts it there, and why it sells hot coffee in winter.
How did "Made in Japan" go from a joke to a promise?
After the war, "Made in Japan" was shorthand for shoddy goods. Today it sits on cameras, cars and kitchen knives. The change runs through clockwork dolls, a self-stopping loom and a postwar obsession with getting the small things right.