Did you know: there is Five S city in Japan?

Japan does not only practice Five S on regular basis, but it has it in their blood. For example, Tokyo is a city having 14 million people, yet it is cleaner than the United States when it is compared in terms of their development status.

In Japan, there are few public areas which say to carry away your trash along with you to your home and people even follow that because Japan is an island nation where the sense of community and desire to maintain orderliness is deeply ingrained. Also, the cost for trash is very high as the landfill is limited with Japan being an island country.

In Japan, the new year is all about cleaning and not partying. Japanese head to their homes from wherever they are to spend 2-3 days cleaning their houses and preparing for the new year ahead.  It’s like the whole country does “spring cleaning” at the same time but in the winter.

Japan teaches about the Five S to kids from their childhood. Japanese children are supposed to clean their classrooms and schools for them to achieve results to of clean classrooms. The motive behind this is to teach them the core values of Five S.

The Five S is so deep in the culture of Japan that there is a city Ashikaga that is outside Tokyo which calls itself “FiveS City” and here Five S is the core value for everyone in the town. In 1990 at the time of the recession period of Japan, when people were losing their jobs, several companies started using Five S and other popular concepts like; TPS, Lean, etc. to improve their business And revitalize their community. These companies also decided to start a Five S school through the chamber of commerce. The first ever Five S school was established in 2006. Ashikaga AKA Five S City is a place where everyone’s core value is Five S, hence you can see the morals and values of Five S in Japan. It has been there since ages, are we practicing the same?

Written & Compiled by Faber Priyal & Faber Mayuri.