Kaizen, Kaikaku and Kakushin – what’s the difference?
Last updated: October 20, 2025 Read in fullscreen view
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3 essential K’s for organizational success: Kaizen, Kaikaku, Kakushin
Anyone who has been anywhere near a Lean consultant worth their day rate would have heard a few Japanese words thrown into the mix during the client engagement spiel. Well, now you will be able to explain to them the difference between Kazian, Kaikaku and Kakushin and stand out from your peers.
- Kaizen (改善) = change+good = continuous improvement (DMAIC).
- Kaikaku (改革) = change + radical = reform/big improvement (DMAIC).
- Kakushin (革新) = new + transformation = innovation / reform / renewal (DMEDI)
Kaizen
Kaizen - the similar method of incremental and iterative development in Scrum
Kaizen - more like a turbocharge solution
The main characteristics of Kaizen are:
- Projects are well defined and baseline stats are collected before starting
- Dedicated resources are subject matter experts (SMEs) and focus on only the project
- The solutions should come from the SMEs, as they will need to act as champions for the change
- Often follows the Deming/Shewhart cycle of Plan-Do-Check-Act
- Kaizen™ projects typically last 3–5 days
- Management MUST make resources available from support functions during the project. i.e., HR, Finance, Warehouse, Sales, Marketing
- Solutions are implemented based on 80% confidence instead of 95%
- Implementation is completed within the project timeline but if items fall outside, they are generally completed within 20 days
- Basic analysis is acceptable with indicative results enough to make decisions.
Kaikaku
Kaikaku (改革), is the Japanese term for "radical change".
What is the difference between Kaizen and Kaikaku?
The main difference between Kaizen and Kaikaku is the scale of change. Kaizen involves making small, incremental changes in order to improve processes over time, while kaikaku involves more radical changes that can cause significant disruption in order to achieve major organisational improvements.
The concept of Kaikaku is based on the idea that significant, transformative changes are necessary to bring about significant improvements in a business.
Kaikaku - more like a supercharged solution
Kaikaku is the Japanese term for "radical change." In business, kaikaku is concerned with making fundamental and radical changes to a production system, unlike kaizen, which is focused on incremental changes. Both Kaizen and Kaikaku can be applied to activities other than production.
Whereas Kaizen is about small incremental improvements, Kaikaku is taking a sledgehammer to a system/process. Due to the large nature and ergo expensive nature of these changes, they are normally top-down decisions. Also, Kaikaku tends to be done at a larger scale than Kaizen which is typically implemented at the team level.
Kakushin
Kakushin - high-end solutions with break-through, disruptive innovation
Kakushin—this is the most controversial one, and lean geeks will argue all day on its exact meaning. If you translate it into innovation/reform/renewal, then you won’t be far wrong. Basically looking at what you are doing now and not even trying to improve it, just doing something different or radical. Kakushin follows on more from Kaikau.
Please note that, Kakushin does not mean you can ignore Kaizen and Kaikaku.
Maybe the diagram below will help you visualize the differences between the 3 words and their corresponding meanings.
Kakushin enhances, not replaces Kaikaku
In conclusion, embarking on Kakushin—Lean transformation—requires strategic planning and leadership from the top of the organizational hierarchy. A comprehensive road map on the approach and a continual improvement approach such as Kaizen should be adopted.
Lastly, in a lean transformed organization, lean culture should be a way of life.
Conclusion
Kaizen and Kaikaku are both powerful tools for continuous improvement in business, but they have different focuses, scopes, and levels of involvement. However, Kakushin calls for "out of the box" thinking and could lead to discovering new products or disruptive game changers.
All three techniques have different roles in the lean journey and allow organizations to identify and implement changes at different levels and magnitudes of impact. Each of them is necessary and must be run in tandem for an organization to be truly lean and successful by just being innovative. A company may not be successful in the long run as it lacks innovation, allowing competitors who are innovative to beat it down in the market.
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