See Lean healthcare in Japan, together with your team.
A private study trip to Japan for 8 to 20 leaders, built around your organization’s goals, with preparation before you go and follow-up after you return. Visit Japanese hospitals and factories that have practiced daily improvement for decades, and travel with a guide who knows both Lean and healthcare.
It starts with a 30-minute conversation. No commitment.
Why a custom trip
Designed for your organization, not pulled from a catalog
Open-enrollment tours put you on a bus with strangers. A custom trip puts your leaders on the bus with each other, seeing the same things and talking them through while they are still fresh.
Built around your questions
Patient safety, daily management, flow, or leadership behavior. Host sites are chosen for what your organization is working on right now.
Your people, your timing
Choose dates that work for your team. Bring an executive team, a cohort of improvement leaders, or a mix of clinical and operational leaders.
Shared context that lasts
When a team sees the same hospital and hears the same CEO, “remember what we saw in Nagoya” becomes shorthand for years.
Facilitated, not just toured
Every visit is followed by structured reflection, so observations turn into ideas you can translate, not copy, back home.
Your guide
Travel with a healthcare expert who has led study tours to Japan for more than a decade
I’m Mark Graban. I’ve spent more than 30 years helping hospitals, health systems, and manufacturers build cultures of continuous improvement and psychological safety.
I first went to Japan as a skeptic in 2012. I’ve gone back again and again since, helping lead healthcare study tours to Japanese hospitals, Toyota, and its suppliers. On your trip, my job is to connect what you see in Japan to the realities your team faces at home: staffing pressure, regulatory demands, and the culture you have today.
- Author of Lean Hospitals, Healthcare Kaizen, and The Mistakes That Make Us
- Three-time Shingo Publication Award recipient
- Host of the Lean Blog Interviews and My Favorite Mistake podcasts
- Helping lead healthcare study tours to Japan since 2012
Dave Fitzpatrick
A Canadian who has lived and worked in Japan for many years, with extensive experience facilitating study missions. Co-founder of Zenkai Improvement Partners.
Reiko Kano
A bilingual Lean and TPS expert with deep healthcare experience in both the U.S. and Japan. Co-founder of Zenkai Improvement Partners.
What a trip can include
What your Japan study trip can include
Every itinerary is different, but every trip includes both hospitals and factories. You see TPS where it started, then see how Japanese hospitals have adapted it.
Japanese hospital visits
Gemba walks and in-depth conversations with the leaders who have sustained daily improvement for years, not months.
Patient safety with “Doctors for Tomorrow”
Study sessions with the founders of a Japanese initiative that applies TPS principles to make medical mistakes a thing of the past.
TQM with a former Toyota quality manager
Why quality management is central to TPS, and how the SDCA cycle works alongside PDCA.
Factory visits
Flow, standard work, and small-group kaizen at manufacturers, including medical device makers and Toyota suppliers.
Hands-on improvement
Take part in a TPS-style improvement activity yourself, instead of just hearing about one.
Culture, food, and the bullet train
Time to experience Japan from Nagoya to Tokyo. Past groups say the conversations on the bus were a highlight.
Most trips run about a week, often starting in Nagoya and ending in Tokyo. Site visits, translation, seminars, ground transportation, hotels, and meals inside Japan are handled for you. See a sample week, day by day.
More than a week
Your Japan study trip is an ongoing cohort, not just a week
Your group learns together before, during, and after the trip. The week on the ground is the center of the experience, but it isn’t the whole thing.
Before
Plan and prepare
- Trip planning with Mark: your goals, the right host sites, and who should go
- Prep sessions for your team, so everyone knows what to look for and which questions to ask
- Less time at each site figuring out what you are looking at, more time learning from it
In Japan
Learn on the ground
- Hospital and factory visits, seminars, and hands-on improvement
- Facilitated reflection every day, while observations are fresh
- Time together as a group, including the conversations on the bus
After
Reflect and act
- Follow-up discussions once you are home, focused on reflections and next steps
- Turning observations into small experiments your team will actually run
- Keeping the cohort connected, so the trip changes something back home
It starts with a 30-minute conversation about your goals, your team, and your timing. From there, you get a proposed itinerary and a clear quote. See a sample itinerary.
Why go
Why going is different from reading about it
You can read about Lean for years. I did, and it helped. But watching a hospital CEO describe 20 years of daily improvement, and then seeing it in the way staff move through the space, lands differently than a case study.
The distance is part of the value. Leaders who travel halfway around the world to see something pay closer attention to it, and so do the people back home who hear about it.
One lesson from my first trip: not every Japanese company is like Toyota. Toyota built its culture deliberately, over time. That is good news, because it means your organization can build something of its own.
“Remember what we saw in Nagoya” becomes a way to align on decisions for years afterward.That’s the difference between professional development for one person and a culture-building accelerant for a team.
From past participants
What past participants say
“What blew my mind were the host sites and the depth of Kaizen activities done by the small QC circles. My personal favorite moments were our casual discussions on the bus.”
Mayang Anggarani, Indonesia
“The opportunity to see and deeply reflect on successful Lean Strategy, Culture and Leadership with lean practitioners from around the world was truly beneficial.”
Pat Kramer, Senior Manager, Lean Consulting, Healthcare Performance Partners
“If you want to go see and feel Lean and its roots, travel with [us] to Japan.”
Peter Kabel, Microbiologist, Holland
Photos from past trips
What it looks like on the ground
Getting approval
Making the case inside your organization
Approaches that have worked for past participants.
Send leaders together
Two people who saw the same things are worth more than twice one person going alone. Invite your executive sponsor.
Tie it to strategy
A short A3 that connects the trip to culture change, patient safety, or staff engagement goals makes approval easier.
Compare the alternatives
A week of consulting or a multi-day leadership program often costs as much, without the firsthand experience.
Plan the sharing up front
Decide before you go how you will share what you learn, so the whole organization benefits, not only the travelers.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Is this appropriate for senior executives?
Yes. Trips are built for executives and senior leaders who shape culture, strategy, and management systems. The visits and discussions focus on leadership behaviors and how organizations sustain improvement over time. This is not introductory Lean training.
What does a custom Japan study trip cost?
Every trip is quoted for your group, based on group size, length, and itinerary. You get a clear quote covering everything inside Japan before you commit to anything. International airfare is arranged separately.
How large a group can we bring?
Groups typically range from 8 to 20 people. That is large enough to bring different perspectives, and small enough for real conversation at every hospital and factory.
Who are these trips for?
Hospitals and health systems. The itinerary includes both Japanese hospitals and factories, because seeing TPS where it started, and then seeing how hospitals have adapted it, is what makes the ideas click for healthcare leaders.
What happens before and after the week in Japan?
Before the trip, Mark works with you on planning and leads prep sessions for your team, so you get more out of every site visit. After you are home, follow-up discussions focus on reflections and next steps, so the learning turns into action.
Do we need to speak Japanese?
No. Experienced translators support every visit and seminar, and all facilitated discussions are in English. Outside the program, Japan is surprisingly easy to get around as an English speaker.
Is Japan easy to navigate for first-time visitors?
Very. Japan is safe, orderly, and well-signed, and public transportation is clean and punctual. During the program week, logistics are handled for you. If people arrive early or stay late, they will find it manageable without any Japanese.
What about dietary restrictions?
Japanese food is far more varied than most people expect. Past participants with vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free diets have eaten very well. Tell us in advance and we will plan around it.
Can people arrive early or stay after the program?
Absolutely, and many do. Some arrive in Tokyo a few days early and take the bullet train to join the group. Others stay on after the program ends to explore.
Let’s design your team’s Japan study trip
Tell me what your organization is working on, who might travel, and roughly when. I’ll give you an honest answer about whether a Japan trip is the right next step.