muda n.— «The Japanese word for waste is muda. In Japan, muda refers to any activity that is not value-adding. Taiichi Ohno, who introduced the just-in-time (JIT) production system at Toyota Motor Company, was the first person to...
shi-shi n. urine or urination. Also make shi-shi or go shi-shi ‘to urinate.’ Editorial Note: Reduplicated shi, from the Japanese shiko ‘urine.’ Also imitative of the sound of streaming water. A similar expression occurs in Portuguese, according to...
wen n.— «Walking out into a small room attached to the house called the “wen,” a fancy-sounding word that literally means “harmless cyst,” she said the room, now an exercise room, was once a Japanese tea room ...
sabiki n.— «Sabiki is a Japanese word meaning “bait-catching rig” or “to catch bait fish”—at least that’s what the companies that a few years ago began importing the contraptions from across the Pacific say...
shi-shi n.— «In Hawaii there is a similar thing. When people (esp. old women) have to go to the bathroom they will say “I gotta five-four-four.” Say “5-4-4” in Japanese and it’s “go shi-shi...
meister n.— «An increasing number of manufacturing companies have begun using the in-house title of meister—the German word for master—to improve and pass along technical skills.Eiji Sato, 52, is a meister charged with passing on to the...