JapanAfrica

In Nairobi, Kenya, The State of Japan has installed the biggest headquarters of its development agency in Africa. One of the main activity of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency is to influence the ways of thinking, in the private and public sector, through the philosophy Kaizen, which is a product of the « Lean management » ideology. Doing more with less, this « modern taylorism » - which is now applied in almost all the processed-based industries but also in the public sector, such as the hospitals in France - is being taught to Kenyans as an efficient way of « developing » by Japanese expatriates. This series proposes to show some of the sectors (geothermal factories, public sector, construction business, etc.) on which Japan is trying to influence the Kenyans. It is extracted from the article wrote in 2013 for the French newspaper « Le Monde diplomatique » (« Au Kenya, on aime leurs voitures solides et leur discrétion »).