is a central idea in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
ese culture, meaning to acknowledge one's own mistake and to pledge improvement. This is similar to the German proverb ''Selbsterkenntnis ist der erste Schritt zur Besserung,'' where the closest translation to English would be "Insight into oneself is the first step to improvement".
Cultural meaning
In the ''hansei'' process, the emphasis is on what went wrong and on creating clear plans for ensuring that it does not reoccur; this is done constantly and consistently. At
Toyota
is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
, even if one completes a project successfully, there is still a ''hansei-kai'' (reflection meeting) to review what went wrong. If a manager or engineer claims that there were not any problems with the project, they will be reminded that “no problem is a problem” – meaning that one has not objectively and
critically evaluated the project to find opportunities for improvement. No problems indicate that one did not stretch to meet (or exceed) their expected capacity.
Hansei – Toyota Production System guide
Cultural examples
An example would be the actions of Japanese politicians involved in corruption. They apologize publicly for the inappropriate action, then remove themselves from public politics for a few years. They resume their career after a culturally accepted period of time where they learned their lesson.
In Japanese companies it is common practice for a manager to expect ''hansei'' from his subordinates in case of mistakes. The manager will publicly take the blame, while the department works on solving the problem.
Other use
Hansei also incorporates the concept of greeting success with modesty and humility
Humility is the quality of being humble. Dictionary definitions accentuate humility as a low self-regard and sense of unworthiness. In a religious context humility can mean a recognition of self in relation to a deity (i.e. God), and subsequent ...
. To stop ''hansei'' means to stop learning. With ''hansei,'' one never becomes convinced of one's own superiority, and feels that there is always more room, or need, for further improvement.
See also
*Self-criticism
Self-criticism involves how an individual evaluates oneself. Self-criticism in psychology is typically studied and discussed as a negative personality trait in which a person has a disrupted self-identity. The opposite of self-criticism would be ...
References
External links
Summary at Superfactory
Hansei at Toyota
{{Japanese social terms
Japanese words and phrases
Japanese culture
Society of Japan
Japanese values