japanese word

May 5, 2005 3:09 PM

There is a japanese word, used frequently in factories, that means roughly "bucket" or "container" or "processing bin." I think it begins with a "k" although I could be wrong. Does anyone have any idea what it is?
posted by jaanpehechaanho to writing & language (11 comments total)

Kanban.
posted by cairnish at 3:32 PM on May 5, 2005

danke
posted by jaanpehechaanho at 3:49 PM on May 5, 2005

"Kanban " is the name of the Toyota system that in English is called "just in time" but it doesn't mean "container" in any way. It means sign or card. The most generic word for container in Japanese is "utsuwa/?"
posted by adamrice at 8:46 PM on May 5, 2005

?? (mizuoke) or just ?(oke)? ?? kibutsu?

WWWJDIC might have it if none of these are right.
posted by Alison at 9:08 PM on May 5, 2005

It seems that Japanese characters are not allowed. Drats.
posted by Alison at 9:08 PM on May 5, 2005

Did it sound like "hako" or "bako" ('a' pronounced as in "saw") with perhaps something else on the front of the word?
posted by planetkyoto at 9:15 PM on May 5, 2005

second hako.
posted by dorian at 10:08 PM on May 5, 2005

This will sound snarky, but I'm serious: cargo containers are called kontennaa (pronounced just like "container" with a Japanese accent, typical of "loan words" from English).
posted by SPrintF at 10:12 PM on May 5, 2005

Second for コンテナー (container). Very common.
posted by mexican at 12:57 AM on May 6, 2005

Within our factory, the 'wrong answer' to this question would still have been an acceptable answer to the question as posed. In the factory in which I worked, there was scant concern for the literal correctness, aptness, or derivation of terminology, etc. Bins were emblematic of the kanban system. The bins were routinely referred to as 'kanban bins.' The bins were sometimes referred to as 'kanbans.' Nobody cared a whit if they were mangling concepts or bastardizing language, as harsh as that may sound. Equally abused: six-sigma quality circle ISO 9001 TQS QMS Deming Juran blah blah blah kanban JIT whatever.
posted by cairnish at 9:39 AM on May 6, 2005

Oh, I don't doubt that kanban probably is the right answer. And it's interesting to me that the word has come to be associated with the container among English-speakers--I don't have a problem with that (you probably know how English is butchered in Japan). But the "word with K meaning container" definitely threw me off-course.
posted by adamrice at 1:19 PM on May 6, 2005