If there is one thing that Japan is really good at, it is safety, in it's all-encompassing gory glory; personal safety, health and wellness, workplace safety, environmental awareness. It's not that there is no crime nor accidents here but they certainly take a lot of precautions to mitigate the potential.
I was given a two hour introduction to safety at Toyota last week. Pretty interesting stuff. First there was a class on pedestrian and driving safety. When walking around the office besides staying on the walkways and pointing at intersections, there is even a motion-activated voice recording that reminds us to hold the handrails when walking up and down the stairs. I've also been informed that I am to partake in a four hour long computer training class detailing good ergonomic practices - which is probably very useful considering the long hours they work here!
Driving safety covered some basic rules that were slightly different from American roads. There were two really interesting lessons I got from the class: first, if you get into a car accident in Japan, your company gets notified, and there is a process of investigating the incident and finding countermeasures to make sure it doesn't happen again. The other one was pretty simple, Toyota's zero-tolerance policy for drunk driving. If you get caught, you get fired. 'Nuff said.
Safety in the plant is rather similar to back home, except that we have to wear these goofy looking hats or helmets along with our company jackets and safety shoes, and safety glasses are not required, so you can actually see what's going on around you!
There was also a series of rather grotesque safety simulations showing what happens to fingers, arms, and other body parts if caught in different machines in the plant. They were all based on accidents that have occurred before which was the rather unnerving part. I don't think I'll ever look at a bamboo stick in quite the same way.
Lastly, but just as importantly, there was a lengthy presentation on environmental awareness outlining the major initiatives that the company is taken to reduce waste and emissions, and the little things that we can do individually. Japan has an incredibly strict and comprehensive policy on recycling. I think there are 8 different waste containers in our break room separating PET bottles, PET bottle caps, aluminum cans, cardboard, paper, combustibles, there is even a specific container for juice boxes! I doubt that I will be able to stand not having recycling when I get back to Indiana.
Closing note: I found this pretty concise op-ed about recycling in Japan when I was looking for more information on the sorting process for waste. Linked above if you're at all interested in reading.
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