Long-term thinking
How a Japanese company plans ten years out without losing the month. What that looks like in a plant in Tijuana.
Service 02
Japanese business culture training
A workshop for owners and managers who already tried kaizen and watched it die within six months. Groups of 6 to 10, from two sessions of two hours, built on real cases. Delivered in English or Spanish.
What I work on with you.
Four themes. Each one lands on something you can change in your operation, not on a definition already on the internet.
Ikigai and kaizen, together
Purpose is not a poster and improvement is not a board. Either they hold each other up or both fall.
Omotenashi and omoiyari
Service that anticipates instead of reacting. It is why a Japanese client comes back without shopping on price.
The Japanese way of leading
Who proposes, who is obliged to answer, and why importing only the first half kills the system in six months.
How the workshop runs.
No surprises on logistics or on price.
| Group size | 6 to 10 people |
| Length | From two sessions of two hours |
| Audience | Owners, managers and supervisors |
| Method | Real cases and exercises, no brochure theory |
| Language | English or Spanish, your choice |
| Investment | From MXN $6,000, depending on group size and format |
Pricing depends on group size and location. Tell me how many people and where, and I will send the number.
Why me.
Some teach the method from the manual. I learned it from the inside.
I interpret Japanese on the plant floor, so I see how a Japanese company is actually run: who proposes, whose job it is to answer, and how fast. That is the half of the method that does not travel in the courses, and it decides whether your improvement board is still alive next year.
And I do not only see it from the interpreting booth. I was vice president of the construction sector at DEITAC, Tijuana's economic development body, a director of the Japanese Maquiladora Association in San Diego, and president of the Japanese Association of Tijuana. I have sat at both tables.
I have also taught it: lectures at the UABC School of Languages and at UABC International Business, and in the entrepreneurship program at UTT. The workshop is that same material, brought down to your operation instead of to an exam.
In 2021 the Government of Japan awarded me the Foreign Minister's Commendation for contributing to understanding between the two countries. That and everything above, separating what has a public link from what does not, is in the dossier.
Questions I get.
Answered here so you do not have to write just to ask the price.
Is this the same as a kaizen or 5S course?
No. A 5S course teaches the tool. Here I work on the management system that keeps the tool alive, which is the part the manuals leave out and the reason most implementations die within six months.
Does it work if we are not a manufacturer?
Yes. The principles come from manufacturing but they govern how people are led, and that applies the same in a firm, a restaurant or a store.
Can you deliver it in English?
Yes. I run the workshop in English when the group needs it, which usually means someone from headquarters is in the room.
Do you issue a certificate?
No. What you leave with is a plan of what you will change on Monday, not a diploma.
How much does it cost?
I am Horacio Kohakura, and the workshop I teach in Tijuana, Mexico starts at MXN $6,000. The final price depends on the group size and on whether it runs at your company or in a room I book. Groups are 6 to 10 people, from two sessions of two hours. Tell me how many people and where, and I will send you a firm number.