K Srinivasan
JAPAN’S Kansai International Airport (KIX) recently celebrated 30 years without losing a single piece of luggage. In a press release, the airport said: “We believe that the record of having no baggage lost since the opening of the airport is the result of the daily efforts and careful work of everyone involved, including airlines and handling companies.”
The airport commenced operations in September 1994 and services close to 30 million passengers each year. The beauty is the airport looks at this incredible achievement as something routine. “We don’t feel like we have been doing something special. We have been working as we normally do. We only do our work on a daily basis and we are recognised for it. We are certainly happy to receive the award. I think our staff, especially those working on the ground, feel more pleased,” Kenji Takanishi, a public relations officer for Kansai, was quoted as saying by CNN.
Labour work ethic
Kansai Airport is built on an artificial island around Osaka Bay and serves the cities of regions around it – Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe. Last year Kansai was ranked the 18th best airport in the world, behind two Tokyo airports–Narita (fifth) and Haneda (fourth). Japan is renowned for its efficiency and the work ethic of its labour, both blue-collar and white-collar. They have a lifelong loyalty to the company they join first and spend a lifetime being punctual, and continuously working to improve their productivity using techniques like Kaizen.
Japan’s railway system exemplifies this supreme belief in enhanced productivity setting benchmarks in innovation and excellence. Many of us who have experienced the Japanese bullet train – known worldwide as the Shinkansen – know that it has an unparalleled reputation for punctuality, efficiency, and reliability.
The BBC in a recent piece on Japan wondered how “most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is. Then they notice the absence of litter bins. And street sweepers. So they’re left with the question: how does Japan stay so clean? The easy answer is that residents themselves keep it that way. “For 12 years of school life, from elementary school to high school, cleaning time is part of student’s daily schedule,” said Maiko Awane, Assistant Director of Hiroshima Prefectural Government’s Tokyo office. “In our home life as well, parents teach us that it’s bad for us not to keep our things and our space clean.” Including this element of social consciousness in the school curriculum helps the children develop an awareness of, and pride in, their surroundings. Who wants to dirty or deface a school that they have to clean up themselves?’’
Swachh Bharat
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan of India is a similar concept to bring civic sense among the citizens. But, frankly, it has become, more of a meme fest and an opportunity for satire for a large segment of the population. Unless we consider it a way of life, we can get nowhere near the spotlessly clean environment that citizens provide themselves in Japan. Now this is again a function of Kaizen – a consistent and constant effort to up the ante and go for a higher benchmark all the time.
While India may now be fourth in terms of the GDP, we are way behind when it comes to efficiency, punctuality, civic commitment and a desire to excel. If we have to be a great nation, we simply cannot get there without embracing these elements in our daily lives and making them a part of our routin
