ChiramiWhat kanban literally means (看板)
Kanban (看板) is the everyday Japanese word for a sign: the board over a shop door, a billboard on a roof, a sign by the road. Its two kanji say exactly that: 看, to look at, and 板, a board. A kanban is a board that’s there to be looked at. In English the word has taken a different path, as the name of a way of organizing work that began in Toyota’s factories.
What the kanji say
看 (kan) means to look at, or to watch over. Its top is 手, a hand, drawn flat and slanting, and under it sits 目, an eye. The Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese dictionary from around 100 CE, explains it as a hand above an eye, and a later commentator pictures someone shading their eyes with a hand to get a clearer look. In Japanese, 看 often turns up in words about watching over people: 看護師 (kangoshi), a nurse, and 看病 (kanbyou), nursing someone who is ill.
板 (ban, or ita) is a board or a plank. The 木 on its left is a tree, standing for wood, and 反 on the right gives the sound. Read いた (ita), it’s the board itself: a 板前 (itamae) is a chef, the cook who works in front of the chopping board. In longer words it’s often ban, as in 黒板 (kokuban), a blackboard.
So 看板 is a “look board”: a board made to be seen.
More than a sign
The word has picked up a few extra meanings in Japanese, and they all grew out of the sign over the door.
- A shop’s good name. Signs of every kind became common on Japanese shops in the Edo period (1603–1868), and a shop’s sign came to stand for the shop itself. So 看板 can also mean a business’s reputation, or whatever draws the crowds. A shop’s 看板商品 (kanban shouhin) is its best-known product, and its 看板娘 (kanbanmusume) is the young woman whose smile brings customers in.
- Closing time. In a bar or a small restaurant, もう看板です (mou kanban desu) means “we’re closing”. From the middle of the Edo period through the Meiji era (1868–1912), many shops hung their signs under the eaves and carried them inside at the end of the day, so taking in the sign meant the day was over.
- Closing for good. 看板を下ろす (kanban o orosu), “to take down the sign”, means to shut a business down.
How Toyota took it to English
In the late 1940s, Toyota began studying supermarkets, where customers take what they need and only that gets restocked. Taiichi Ohno, an engineer at Toyota, built the same idea into the factory. Each stage of the line asks the stage before it for exactly the parts it has used up, and the request travels on a card. Those cards were the kanban, and the system took its name from them. English borrowed the word along with the method, and kanban boards, with their columns of cards, are now used to plan projects far beyond the factory floor. In Japanese the system is かんばん方式 (kanban houshiki), often written in kana.
How to use it
駅前に大きな看板があります。
Ekimae ni ookina kanban ga arimasu.
There's a big sign in front of the station.
あの看板、何て書いてあるの？
Ano kanban, nante kaite aru no?
What does that sign say?
すみません、もう看板なんです。
Sumimasen, mou kanban nan desu.
Sorry, we're closing for the night.
このパン屋の看板商品はメロンパンです。
Kono pan'ya no kanban shouhin wa meronpan desu.
This bakery is best known for its melon bread.
- Kanban covers almost any sign made to catch the eye: shop signs, billboards, signs on the side of a building.
- Closing time is restaurant and bar talk. It’s what the staff tell the last customers at the end of the night.
- People can be a 看板 too. A theatre’s star actor can be its 看板, the name that sells the tickets.
Words with the same kanji
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 看板娘 | kanbanmusume | young woman who draws customers to a shop |
| 看板商品 | kanban shouhin | flagship product |
| 看護師 | kangoshi | nurse |
| 看病 | kanbyou | nursing someone who is ill |
| 黒板 | kokuban | blackboard |
| 掲示板 | keijiban | notice board; online forum |
Remember it
Picture a shopkeeper shading his eyes with one hand (看) to admire the wooden board (板) above his door. At the end of the day he lifts it down and carries it inside: closing time.
The kanji in this lesson
Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.