On day 3 we had not scheduled any visits, so I took of the day off buying some presents in Akihabara part of Tokyo (a.k.a. Electric City). In the afternoon I met with some of the participants at a Big Echo Karaoke-hotel. Who would have thought "We are the world" sung in a Tokyo basement could sound so beautiful?

Day 4 we visited DaiNippon Printing Ltd. At the factory tour of DaiNippon we saw how millions of japanese anime cartoons were printed, but most remarkably we saw how widespread the culture of using visual management in factories are. We had barely entered the factory, when I counted 13 * 3 meters of visuals on a wall. What to look for during maintenance with big pictures of how well-maintained equipment should look, defect statistics, and a lot of stuff I japanese (whích I can't read) that looked important. All of which helped employees do a better job.

By Sune Gynthersen