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)
- A Japanese business practice of continuous improvement in performance and productivity.
- (by extension) Continuous improvement generally. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
Translations
Japanese business practice of continuous improvement
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Verb
kaizen (third-person singular simple present kaizens, present participle kaizening, simple past and past participle kaizened)
- (transitive, business) To apply continuous improvement to (a task, or the worker who performs it).
See also
- quality circle
Japanese
Romanization
kaizen
- Rōmaji transcription of かいぜん