(EN) Mendomi: The Well-Being of Japanese Employees

In this blog post I would like to introduce another Japanese term used in industry: Mendomi. Used at Toyota and also other Japanese firms, it means to take care of your employees. And, Toyota makes a good effort on this, albeit not flawlessly. Let’s dive deeper on what mendomi means (but don’t expect to find a new religion in there…).

Linguistics

Mendomi is written in Japanese as 面倒見, and it means „taking care of someone.“ Taking the Japanese characters (Kanji) literally, Mendo (面倒) means trouble, bother, or difficulty, but also care and attention, and Mi (見) means looking or viewing. Hence the translation to take care, extending to showing close interest in others and approaching their needs with sensitivity and compassion to ease their burdens.

As such, it fits in the general concept of the Japanese culture of Amae (甘え), which literally means depending on others but is often translated with „sweetness.“ Japanese society is very group oriented and usually quite consensus seeking, much more so than most Western societies. 

However, it is just a Japanese word. Western influencers and consultants like to take a foreign (in Lean, often Japanese) word, and then try to give it a mystic aura and milk it for all they can, whereas for the Japanese it is just one word of many. Examples in lean being Kata, or Ikigai. See especially the Ikigai article for more examples outside of lean, like forest bathing (shinrin yoku), or the mythical German concept of Aufheben (Hint: To Germans, Aufheben it is not mythical or a philosophy, but merely means to pick something up). It is more of a Toyota internal lingo that spread due to the influence of Toyota.

Mendomi at Toyota

One of the goals of Toyota is „Producing Happiness for All“ (Source, Source, Source, and Source). You probably have heard their „Respect for People“ motto, often also translated as „Respect for Humanity.“ Along this line, they are conducting a series of „Emotional Well-Being Research Workshops“ to understand the needs of their employees better. Side note, this work also included my former employer, the Toyota Central R&D laboratories in Nagakute, Japan, where I worked for many years. This well-being focuses on the employees of Toyota, in particular the manufacturing employees worldwide. The goal is to improve the motivation of their workers, which in turn will yield better work and better products.

They approached this using eight keywords as shown here.

• Acknowledge (認める, mitomeru), or literally to recognize; to observe; to notice​
• Evolution (進化する, Shinka suru), or literally to evolve
• Play (遊ぶ, asobu)
• Create (創造する, SouZou suru)
• Hope (希望を持つ, Kibo wo motsz), or literally to have hope
• Symbiosis (共生する Kyousei suru), or literally to coexist and live together
• Wellness (健康を感じる kenko wo Kenjiru), or literally to feel healthy
• Contact (触れ合う, fure au), or literally to come into contact with; to touch (each other); to have a brush with​

Unsurprisingly, they found that their employees‘ preferences differed widely by region, as they were influenced by the local culture (for a good book on cultural differences, see The Culture Map by Erin Meyer). And, I think it is good that they realized that. Forcing the headquarter-prevalent culture on employees abroad can increase friction.

Basically, they want to treat their workers like family, and treat them with care, respect, and support, and to support mutual recognition and trust. This is common in Japanese firms, and many Japanese companies go to great lengths to avoid firing employees. For example, a shipyard I know of started a sake brewery during an economic downturn to keep its employees employed. Letting go of people for economic reasons is often the very last option after all other options are exhausted, and it brings great shame on the company for failing their employees. Compare this to the USA, where firing people is seen as good business practice… which it is not. See my blog post This is NOT Lean: Lean Staffing.

An employee at a Japanese company is seen as a long-term commitment. People are hired right after graduation (high school or university), and they stay with the company till retirement. While this is slowly changing, switching companies is still rare in Japan. Employees are treated almost like family, receiving great support. On the other hand, there is also a high expectation to support the company (i.e. „the family“). See below for more on this.

Toyota tries to implement this in reality. For example, during COVID-19, they reached out to their employees daily to check on their well-being. Their attention to work safety is also well renowned, and they have regular ergonomic workshops and internal competitions (the Ergo-Cup). They try to support diversity so that everybody can work happily (in contrast with current trends in the US government, where everybody is supposed to be a White straight male, or at least should behave like one). They show a clear development path for every member from shop-floor newbie to plant manager (albeit, of course, not everybody can be a plant manager). They are also known (or were known) for their open communication across hierarchies. In case of problems on the assembly line, there is a support network that reacts very quickly, with help often arriving within less than half a minute after pulling the andon line.

Vision versus Reality?

Companies like to claim a lot of things. Actually doing them, however, is much harder. Pretty much every company claims that it will treat its employees well… but not all employees agree with that. This also applies to Toyota. The Japanese work environment is harsh and grueling, and many Japanese who work abroad and experience different work systems never want to go back to Japan. If fate forces them to go back, they usually would have preferred to work abroad due to the much better work-life balance. See also my blog post The Dark Side of Japanese Working Society for more. The recent CEO Akio Toyoda, in my opinion, also had a bad influence on the Toyota culture, reducing the ability to communicate across hierarchies (unless it is good news or agreement).

But even though it is not flawless, in my opinion, Toyota is trying to make their workers feel satisfied working for Toyota. And, in direct conversation with Toyota employees, they gave me an overall positive impression of their company (not all, though). In any case, now go out, take care of your employees (but don’t take the Japanese word mendomi and start a religion with it), and organize your industry!