kaizen

English

Etymology

From Japanese 改善 (kaizen かいぜん), from Middle Chinese 改善 (kój-dʒjén) (compare Mandarin gǎishàn 改善), from Old Chinese 改善 (*qˁəʔ-ɡenʔ "to correct errors"), from 改 ("to change") + 善 ("good").

Introduced to English in 1959 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente in his book Japanese Etiquette and Ethics in Business.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkaɪˌzən/, /ˈkaɪˌzɛn/
• Rhymes: -aɪzən

Noun

kaizen (countable and uncountable, plural kaizens)

1. A Japanese business practice of continuous improvement in performance and productivity.
2. (by extension) Continuous improvement generally.
   • 2023 June 28, Sir Michael Holden, “Comment: 'There will be more Nunehams': We need some serious Kaizen... and we need it now”, in RAIL, number 986, page 3:

     This is a big mistake, because Japanese railways were largely built using British equipment and technology. But what they have done since is ruthlessly improve and refine it, using Kaizen principles.

Translations

Japanese business practice of continuous improvement

• French: kaizen (fr) m
• Japanese: 改善 (ja) (かいぜん, kaizen)
• Malay: kaizen
• Polish: kaizen m
• Portuguese: kaizen (pt) m
• Russian: кайдзе́н (ru) m (kajdzɛ́n), кайдзэ́н m (kajdzɛ́n)
• Serbo-Croatian: kaizen
• Turkish: kayılık, kailik

Verb

kaizen (third-person singular simple present kaizens, present participle kaizening, simple past and past participle kaizened)

1. (transitive, business) To apply continuous improvement to (a task, or the worker who performs it).

See also

• quality circle

Japanese

Romanization

kaizen

1. Rōmaji transcription of かいぜん