The Editing Coordinator’s Postscript
The planning of this book started with a discussion of what kind of book would
meet with Mrs. Keiko Ishikawa’s desire to capture Dr. Ishikawa’s life in print in such away that when his grandchildren grow up, the work could be used to explain what theirgrandfather did. In the end, it was decided that the book should consist of an outline ofDr. Ishikawa’s activities and accomplishments with the contributions about thereminiscences of Dr. Ishikawa from those who were his good friends. It was also
concluded to fully confirm the historical facts so as to make the book a valuable sourceof information for scholars of quality management. And, finally, the book should reflect
Dr. Ishikawa’s personality by editing in informal and relaxed manner.
Establishment of the editorial committee
The editorial committee was organized with the following individuals, who had
been supervised for preparing doctoral dissertations and the likes by Prof. Ishikawa.
ChairmanMembers

Masumasa IMAIZUMITakashi MIYAZU
Ms. Toshimi FUJIMORI
Nobuyoshi TAKAMATSU
Hitoshi KUME
Noriaki KANO
Shinsuke FURUYA
Hiroshi OSADAAlthough Mrs. Keiko Ishikawa is the publisher of the book, the committee takes all
the responsibility for editing. The three youngest members, Furuya, Osada and Kano,functioned as editing coordinators.
The title of the bookAt the beginning, “Iroiro Araana”, a favorite expression of Dr. Ishikawa, wasconsidered as the title meaning “Well, it all depends on how you look at it.” However,with the concern that librarians may have difficulty in properly classifying the book as
quality management and in respect to Mrs. Ishikawa’s wishes. “KAORU ISHIKAWA,The Man and Quality Control” was chosen as the final title instead. Dr. Takashi
Mukaibo, Dr. Ishikawa’s very close friend from their school days, kindly accepted ourThe Editing Coordinator’s Postscript

request to write the calligraphic title.
To overseas contributors and readers
Many of the Dr. Ishikawa’s overseas friends contributed their articles to this book.
It is our intention to distribute the book not only to these contributors but also to thequality organizations in the world. Therefore, a minimum English translation isprovided so that the overseas readers can understand the intent and the nature ofpublishing this book and judge the necessity of further translation according to theirinterest. The parts that are translated are the “Preface,” “Writer’s list (with therelationship with Prof. K. Ishikawa and their titles)” “Contents,” “Postscript by Mrs.
Keiko ISHIKAWA,” and “Editor’s postscript.”
Acknowledgement
Our deep appreciations go to all those who collaborated for the publication of thisbook — the writers, many organizations and others who kindly assisted us for editing.
Their names are listed as follows (alphabetical order):1. Permission from the publishers for reprinting their articles
American Society for Quality Control
Journal of Quality Progress
The Japanese Society for Quality Control
Journal of Hinshitu (Quality)
The Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE)
Journal of Hinshitsu Kanri (Statistical Quality Control)
QC Circle-monthly magazine
Reports of Statistical Application Research, JUSE
Musashi Institute of Technology (MIT)MIT News
The Celebration Committee for Dr. Ishikawa’s Honor of Receiving the Second
Order of the Sacred, Gold and Silver Star (The Office of Prof. H. Kume,
University of Tokyo).
“Profile of Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa”
2. Dedication of the pictures and materials
Messrs. Akira Ishikawa, Masahiko Munechika, and Masahiro Ohnishi.
3. Dedication of material preparation
Mr. and Mrs. Hiroshi and Chizuko Iijima (copying of a sutra), Mr. Kozo Koura(chronology), Mr. Shiro Otake (illustration), Messrs. Shu Yamada and Toshiro
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The Editing Coordinator’s Postscript

Haga (data analysis).
4. Research on the article contents
Mr. Masao Kogure, Ms. Haruko Mitsuaki, Messrs. Hiroaki Nakazato, Tatsuo
Sugimoto, and Eizo Watanabe; Asian Productivity Organization, TheAssociation for Overseas Technical Scholarship, Japan-China Scientific andEngineering Cultural Center, and Japan Iron and Steel Federation.
5. Translation
Ms. Noriko Kusaba (English to Japanese), Mr. Mao-Chuang Chien (Chinese toJapanese), Mses. Noriko Hosoyamada, Hiroko Yamada, Messrs. Brendan
Collins, David Hutchins, Paul Lillrank, Eric Rutledge, and Kent Sterett(Japanese to English, including advices).
6. Organization and galley proofing
Messrs. Mitsuru Nitta, Yukihiro Ando.
7. Secretarial work
Ms. Naoko Honda.
In addition, we are owing to the wide cooperation from the staff of JUSE, JUSEPress, and Japanese Standards Association. We deeply thank all of the above people for
their dedication to this book.
Apologies
In spite of our effort to include all those who were close to Dr. Ishikawa, we areafraid that we owe an apology for missing some individuals whose articles should havebeen included in this book. Also, as the articles were originally requested without aspecific theme, the coordinators’ categorization of the articles may not exactly agree tothe writers' intention. Furthermore, we must apologize for much delayed publication. It
took us far more time than was expected to compile Dr. Ishikawa’s publication list andchronology and to summarize his research work. It is hoped that this delay will be
understood as an indication of the breadth and depth of Dr. Ishikawa’s activities.
As described above, with many people’s cooperation, we have managed tocomplete the book at last. We are pleased to publish this book which sheds light onsome points that were not very clear in the history of Japanese TQC and at the sametime which introduce many episodes of Dr. Ishikawa’s warm personality. In retrospect,
it was a massive undertaking to compile the outline of Dr. Ishikawa’s research work
(Chapter 15), his chronological history and the publication list (Appendices). Even Dr.
Ishikawa, who had a nickname of “record maniac” did not leave us a complete list of his531

The Editing Coordinator’s Postscript

publications, perhaps, he was too busy writing papers. We made a great effort to fill themany missing pieces and have developed a list of about 950 books / articles / slides /videos / standards. However, we are afraid that the list is still incomplete. In addition tohis extensive work in the broad area of quality management, Dr. Ishikawa left a large
volume of quotes for TQC promotion. We tried in this book to cover them all, but wemust confess that our effort still fell short.
Dr. Ishikawa’s accomplishments were so enormous that even a bulky 600 pages
book was not enough to cover everything. We sincerely wish that this book will trigger
an effort to develop the second and the third version of the studies on Dr. Kaoru
Ishikawa and his work. Together with Mrs. Ishikawa, we also desire that this book will
help his grandchildren to better understand their grandfather. Finally, we hope that thisbook will be used as a valuable source of information by young researchers in quality
management who wish to deepen their understanding of the development of TQC in
Japan and its impact on the world.
In closing, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to Mrs. KeikoIshikawa who encouraged us many times, and to Dr. Masumasa Imaizumi, Chairman ofthe committee, who provided us with advice and guidance at key stages. Many thanks toMr. Katsuharu Arai for his partnership with the coordinators from the planning to theprinting stage. We owe Mr. Zenichiro Kurita, Former President, and Mr. Teruhide Haga,President, JUSE Press, for their kind understanding and support. We were also gratefulto Chuo Bijutsu, the printer of this book, for its cooperation to Dr. Ishikawa’s work, inspite of the various inconveniences that might have caused during its printing schedule.
Thanking for the great opportunity to study the development of quality
management in Japan through editing this book, we pray that Dr. Ishikawa’s soul rest inpeace.
Noriaki Kano,On behalf of the Editing Coordinators

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