
Canon Employees Are Forbidden to Sit Down, Walk Slowly - quoderat
http://www.dannychoo.com/detail/mac/eng/image/19639/Canon+Electronics.html
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smanek
Apparently the president of Canon Electronics (Hisashi Sakamaki) wrote this
book:
[http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4396612486/mitsu-10...](http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4396612486/mitsu-101-22/ref=nosim)
whose title translates to "A company will do well if you get rid of the chairs
and computers"

(Caveat: I don't read Japanese - I'd appreciate confirmation of that
translation from someone. I read about it at
[http://www.dannychoo.com/detail/mac/eng/image/19639/Canon+El...](http://www.dannychoo.com/detail/mac/eng/image/19639/Canon+Electronics.html))

It seems weird that anyone would bother with the 5M/3.6sec rule ... that's
only 3.1 mph - I doubt many people walk much slower than that. Do they really
think the morale hit is really worth the seconds someone would save walking
3.1 mph instead of a ultra-leisurely 2mph?

~~~
miles
_"I'd appreciate confirmation of that translation from someone."_

It is correct. Here is the original in Japanese:

椅子とパソコンをなくせば会社は伸びる!

in Roman letters (romaji):

isu to pasukon wo nakuseba kaisha wa nobiru!

a literal translation:

chairs and computers (object) if do away with company as for improve

and finally a rather free-handed translation:

Get rid of chairs and computers to improve your company!

~~~
zouhair
Feels like hearing some 16th century enslaver.

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baddox
For some reason this reminds me of elementary school. In the cafeteria, we had
this big traffic light that supposedly turned from green to yellow then red if
there was excessive noise. If it went red there was some sort of artificial
consequence, most likely some teachers yelling at everyone to quiet down.

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zouhair
I hope this is some kind of a joke.

~~~
Confusion
To us it is; to the Japanese it isn't. They're still not recognizing how
counterproductive their entire culture is. They had their heyday and it's been
downhill from there. Deflation, shrinking of the economy, suicides.

~~~
old-gregg
_how counterproductive their entire culture is_

What a sentence! Instead of arguing and pointing out obvious, I highly
recommend you read something about Japan, other than "internet news".

Putting a label on someone's culture at least calls for a few years of
actually living there. After 10 years in US I still wouldn't dare giving a
grade to American culture, it would take a tome (and I'd still be wrong), let
alone labeling it with a single word.

Disclaimer: I'm not Japanese

P.S. Canon&Nikon, despite their "counterproductive" cultures, pretty much
destroyed American and German photo equipment industries. These days it feels
awkward to say "Kodak moment", most kids will probably ask "who is Kodak?"

~~~
jbm
Disclaimer: I live in Japan, I'm Canadian.

My girlfriend works at Proto, a company that produces a bunch of
entertainment-related websites. Large company, 10k people. Between meetings
and actual work, she spends approximately 15 hours a DAY at work. This is not
abnormal. Another friend who works at a kindergarden works 6 days a week
(sunday is spent preparing lessons) and about the same (15-16 hours a day).

Read that again, tell me how that is not "counterproductive". In my
girlfriend's case, the meetings alone take up 3-4 hours in a day. She leaves
at 7 AM and often gets back after midnight. And for what? So that the world
can find out the latest gossip about Korean dramas with an easy-to-use GUI?

While working on my startup, I took a small contract at Fujitsu. I was
responsible for cleaning up the translations on some of their cell phones (the
Docomo F1100 being the main one - a story for another day). I had a chat with
some people there and they told me how the game works; Fujitsu gives a small
salary, and pays overtime. As a result, average workers sit around for half
the day, then work like nuts during overtime to finish their work.

A lot of younger workers realize this is madness, but keep in mind that the
people in charge generally came up during a worker shortage in the "bubble"
era. These were less competent people who now have seniority in a seniority-
based system. Can you imagine how depressing it is to work on a project that
you know is going to fail? That's life.

I love Japan, I love the trains, I love the politeness and I love the people.
However, given a level playing field (IE: No banks artificially propping up a
company to avoid declaring losses on their own records), it wouldn't take much
to break the back of a lot of local companies. (As much as I hate admitting
it, but I can't work effectively after 8 or 9 hours - and the Japanese don't
have superior body operating systems)

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1gor
I remember time when City of London bankers and brokers used to have two hour
lunch with a few pints of beer. Then their banks were bought up by soulless
Americans and the enslavement began.

In a few years everybody was forced to eat their lunch at their desk.

That's why I don't see this Japanese example as excessively cruel.

~~~
endtime
You don't see the difference between not taking a two hour lunch and getting
drunk, and not being allowed to sit down at your desk?

There _is_ a happy medium somewhere between anarchy and militarism...I'm
inclined to say it involves being allowed to sit down, and doesn't involve a
few pints at lunch.

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WalkingDead
From the article:

> The big boss, as a reward for thinking up all this stuff, gets to lounge in
> a nice, relaxing chair

~~~
jrockway
People in power use the power for their own benefit? That's something society
has never experienced before...

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mynameishere
Next step: Habanero on the toilet seats.

~~~
cmars232
Nah, they probably don't even have toilet seats.

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radu_floricica
Too little info, but it could be an ok idea in some situations. Not for every
department, obviously, and it sounds a lot less inhumane if you imagine it
properly spaced with breaks.

Might be a bit healthy too. There are few things that eat your soul as much as
being in front of a computer with nothing important to do for a few hours
every day.

~~~
Flankk
I think it's excessive to have a machine set off alarms when it thinks your
staff aren't working.

Employees are a company's most valuable asset. Of course it is management's
job to keep staff productive but that is second to keeping them happy.

~~~
randallsquared
_Of course it is management's job to keep staff productive but that is second
to keeping them happy._

Uh, no. Keeping them happy is just a likely way to keep them productive, not a
higher goal. Sending them home with pay would keep them happier on average. :)

~~~
Flankk
I disagree fully. You acknowledge that happy employees are more productive.
You should also realize that unhappy employees equals no employees at all.
When you install machines to prove your distrust in your staff's work ethic,
you will create a poor atmosphere never mind dehumanize your staff. I will
treat my staff as human beings before I will ensure they perform as machines.

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brown9-2
So this President of Canon is using employees that he has some sort of
supervision over to help prove a personal point of his that will net him a
personal monetary gain?

That doesn't sound like conflict of interest at all...

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jpwagner
Is this article for real?

"Let's rush: If we don't, the company and world will perish."

~~~
miles
_"Is this article for real?"_

Yes. The original article can be found on Nikkei Business Publications' ITpro
site:

<http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/OPINION/20090518/330168/>

Here is a photo of the "Let's rush..." admonition:

[http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/OPINION/20090518/330168/...](http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/OPINION/20090518/330168/Ph04.jpg)

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mhb
How are they measuring people's walking speed?

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rw
Is this inhumane?

