This might come off as somewhat pessimistic but I actually think Japan is one of the worst implementers of Kaizen anywhere. Japanese are famously conservative in how they work, with employees largely avoiding taking on any responsibility and spreading out tasks and checks. The end result being no-one really stands out, but also that no-one is ever really singularly "at fault" as every decision and check is daisy-chained.

It's horribly inefficient but exactly what a lot of people want in their jobs here. Kaizen is an example of executives and people who occupy the top of the chain mostly just pontificating and getting high off their own airs and mostly empty words with no internal policies or actions behind it imo. Most famous example in the Japan expat community of this would be somewhere like Uniqlo or Rakuten - horrible places to work with CEOs who like to roleplay as the next Steve Jobs.

I love this country, but these articles foreigners write without ever actually having worked in real Japanese companies with mostly Japanese natives always come off as a bit naive to me.