Chapter 13
Research and Standardization of
Sampling Method and Analytical Testing
MethodProf. Ishikawa had enormously contributed to the development of industrial worldfrom 1951, by researching the sampling methods and the analytical testing methods ofbulk materials as industrial raw materials such as coal and iron ore. In addition, he madean effort to standardize results of the research. In 1951, he founded “Sampling ResearchGroup” in the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers, promoted
industry-government-academia joint research as the secretary-general, abolished theprevious empirical sampling method, and established the scientific method based on
statistical methods. The results of this research are a part of his thesis in 1958,“Research on Sampling of Coals.” From this research, the precision in sampling andanalytical method for bulk industrial materials has greatly improved. As a result of the
improvement the bias has minimized.
In 1952, based on results of the research, the Professor enacted and revised theJapanese Industrial Standards (JIS) related to the sampling method and analyticalmethod of coal, coke, iron ore, nonferrous metals such as manganese, copper, ferroalloy,
and other industrial wastes as a temporary member and an Expert Committee memberof the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee. He established a system of theJapanese Industrial Standards on sampling in this way. This has greatly contributed to
the Japanese industry, which imports a large amount of those materials. It also shows
how superior his research was, because of these standards surpassing the international
level, and also the contents of international standards (IS standards) legislated afterward
were almost identical to the Japanese Industrial Standards which were enacted andrevised by the chairman Prof. Ishikawa and other professors.
In all, there were as many as 27 Japanese Industrial Standards related to sampling,
whose legislation and revisions the Professor participated in as a member of the
Planning Committee.
Although Japan joins the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as a

PART III Accomplishments of Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa

Council member, TC 102 (the Technical Committee on Iron Ore) and its SC 1 (theSubcommittee on Iron Ore Sampling) are the subcommittees for that Japan became thefirst secretariat country, in the ISO. The Professor, as a TC 102 National Mirror
Committee member and the chairperson of the Technical Committee for Sampling,
made his effort in legislating international technology exchange and an international
standard. Thus the Japanese sampling method was approved internationally and hasenhanced the international status of the Japanese Industrial Standards. Besides, theProfessor contributed to enact seven ISO Standards.
In 1976 the Fuel Society of Japan awarded him the Fuel Society Award, and in thesame year the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan gave him the Asada Award for hisachievement and contribution toward quality control in the iron industry. Additionally,in 1954 the Nikkei Quality Control Literature Prize was given to his book, Sampling in
Factories (Maruzen), published in 1952.
From the late 1960s to 70s, pollution became a major social problem in Japan.
Therefore the government and local authorities took steps with various regulations.
Amidst such regulations, articles like “X ppm of environmental concentration andemission concentration of various substances relating to an environmental hazard” were
frequently seen on newspapers and so forth. It was extremely ambiguous, however, todetermine the sampling method and measurement method to obtain such data. Professor
Ishikawa carefully studied such situations, and thus established the Environmental
Preservation Sampling Committee in the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers in
March 1971 as a common studying place for academic society, industries, researchmembers at government offices, engineers and statistic scholars, and extended his
positive activities as the Steering Committee Chairman.
Note: “Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa Profile (Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa Conferral Commemoration)”
was referred to for writing this article.

13.1

Professor Ishikawa and Sampling Research

Despite almost ceased operations immediately after the War, the heavy andchemical industries in Japan had reactivated with the Korean War as a turning point.
Taking the steel industry as an example, imports of iron ore and coal had sharply
risen according to the rapid increase of black copper production. As their prices were
determined by their quality of the principal components (iron % in the former case, ash
content % in the latter case), their estimating method — the sampling and the analysis
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Chapter 13 Research and Standardization of Sampling Method and Analytical Testing Method

method — was an important issue that affected a factory’s profitability, which is still
important at present. In those days, however, there were no standards related tosampling, and the JES standards (prior to JIS) had been used as the analysis method. It
was a custom to determine prices based on analysis value: for iron ore, at a port ofdischarge in Japan, and for coal, at a shipping port.
The starting point of Professor Ishikawa’s “Research on Sampling” was todetermine how to overcome problems of sampling methods in those days. An outline ofa sampling method in those days is as follows.
When a ship carrying iron ore arrived at a port somewhere in Japan, a sampling
method was determined by negotiating between a person responsible for sampling fromthe factory side and an observer (an officer from an inspection agency) representing theshipper’s mining side. It was a primitive method. To begin with, they chose a hatch,made a hole with a grab bucket, etc. and made a section of iron ore. Then both parties
inspected it and mutually decided the ratio of large, medium and small lumps andpowder. This is due to the difference of the iron content in each lump. Supposing theyagreed to the ratio as 3:3:4, they would collect 300kg for large lumps, 300kg for
medium and 400kg for small, and then mix them together to make a large specimen.
This method was called “estimation” at that time, however, it was obviously inaccurate
and constantly resulted in a bias from the unloaded stockpile usage record (almost equal
to 100% inspection). Namely, if we compared an average iron content percentage at
discharging time to an integrated iron value of daily analysis at blast furnaces, there wasalways 1 – 2% of bias, the latter value being lower.
This attributed its reason to the fact that an observing officer for the “estimation”(mostly from American inspection agencies) under the Occupation Time had a strong
influential voice, and there were officers who directly ordered Japanese workers to pickup more large lumps (more iron contents) during unloading time at night. It was the factthat no countermeasures could be taken from the factory side.
It was Professor Ishikawa who considered changing this kind of situation, andstrived to replace the then method of an “estimation,” which is more appropriately
expressed as a “guesstimation,” with the JIS Standards based on the modern sampling
method. This was one of the Professor’s excellent achievements in his early days, as heupheld his policy of acting always at the forefront instead of enclosing himself in anivory tower.
Professor’s research comprises the basic theory of estimating the quality of bulk
materials as well as iron ore with precision. It also consists of the establishment of arational and practical sampling method derived from analysis results obtained from349

PART III Accomplishments of Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa

experiments based on the theory. These became an important part of his doctoral thesis“Research on Sampling of Coals.”
The most important research among Professor’s sampling studies was Increment
Sampling. It was absolutely necessary to revive the steel industry for the recovery ofJapan at that time, however we had no alternative but to rely mostly on imports in theextreme shortage of domestic iron ore yield. Therefore, a quality estimation of ironcontents of iron ore was always needed for every full load of a ship for making thesettlement. Iron ore has its form in lumps and in powder, and the lumps tend to behigher quality, whereas powder was lower. As mentioned above, the ratio between
lumps and powder was determined by eye-sight; therefore there was a tendency in thesampling for vendors to choose lumps whereas buyers would pick powder. In order torationalize this point, anybody can hit on an idea to apply the sampling theory in thefield of mathematical statistics. In other words, if ones agree on an accuracy target bydeciding how much error is tolerated at estimation, and they calculate the necessary
samples for achieving precision by a method of mathematical statistics, a rational
sampling method would be established. However, there is a problem of how to fix thesize and the number of samples. Should this not be done in a rational manner, themathematical statistics would be absolutely useless. Then Professor Ishikawa carriedout a vast amount of experiments, and showed that the unit volume for one action ofcollection for samples (termed as increment) caused variation between increments. As aresult, he induced a fixing method of increment size for more rational sampling, andfurthermore he devised an idea to use a special shovel so that this result could be easily
put into practice at the work place. Although his doctoral thesis was for coal, this is a
widely applicable method and can be applied to all bulk materials. Additionally wecannot forget that, on top of his contribution to sampling, this result has a by-productthat has cultivated a way to apply mathematical statistics to the analysis of quality
problems, such as sample preparation (increment division) of bulk materials.
The Professor reflected these research results in JIS M 8100 (Particulate materials— General rules for methods of sampling). This Standard can be described as theProfessor’s compilation of study, and even though many years have passed after its
enactment, it is still the important document constantly cited for any case related tointernational standardization. After the completion of JIS, Japanese steel industry could
clearly write “sampling method to be performed under JIS” at the time of contract, andas a result of changing to the rational sampling method, they estimated their cost
reduction of around 2 billion yen as the value of that time.
Indeed there are many statisticians inside and outside the country, and there are350

Chapter 13 Research and Standardization of Sampling Method and Analytical Testing Method

some researchers who choose sampling as the research theme. Yet, Professor Ishikawa
was a rare scholar in the world to have contributed to the industrial development on a
global level through theory and practice.
Furthermore, his investigation did not stop at just the sampling method research,but extended the research to the analysis method for securing rational analyticalprecision. The research for analytical precision at that time was performed by analyticalchemistry engineers with their own technical approaches, but he made significant
contribution to the outcomes by adding the full use of statistical methods to this,especially the design of experiments. In this way, Professor Ishikawa was the first
person in Japan to apply the statistical methods effectively and practically to enacting
standards. We can say that Prof. Ishikawa is a pioneer in the world.
(Toshimi Fujimori)

13.2

Bulk Material Sampling Research / JUSE Sampling Research Committee(1) Activities of the Sampling Research Committee in the Mining and Manufacturing
Industry

Considering that sampling was the biggest problem in the grade estimation of coalin the midst of increased production (called “priority production” in those days) as thedriving force behind Japan’s post-war recovery, Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa selected sampling
methods as the research theme. It was essential to study the analysis method itself for
the research, therefore the Sampling Research Committee was established in December
1951 with Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) as its secretariat topromote the study of sampling and analysis methods on a nationwide basis.
Its members were recruited from the industrial world with an annual membershipfee of 36,000 yen and from universities and public research institutes for free. They
started collaborative research activities.
The Committee’s chairman was Mr. Ichiro Ishikawa and Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa
served as a manager or a secretary general from its inception until his death. He
attended the working group meetings as long as time permitted and contributed to theestablishment of operational policies and the promotion of research activities.
From the late 1950s to 1960s, he often conducted collaborative experiments to
prepare JIS draft on the analysis and sampling of coal. Moreover, he accompanied coalmine on-site observation tours in Hokkaido and Kyushu. The results of these studies are351

PART III Accomplishments of Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa

still active at present as JIS M 8810 – M 8814.
The names of Expert Committees that compose the Research Committee are as
follows:
SA: Iron Ore Expert Committee
SB: Nonferrous Metal Expert Committee
SC: Coal and Coke Expert Committee
SC1: Sampling Subcommittee
SC2: Analysis Subcommittee (now “Coal and Coke Analysis Expert
Committee”)
SD: Salt Expert Committee
SE: Sulfide Ore Expert Committee
SF: Pharmaceuticals Expert Committee
SG: Ceramics Expert Committee
SH: Steel Material Expert Committee
SI: Statistics Expert Committee
SJ: Analysis Expert Committee
SK: Equipment Expert Committee
SL: Storage Salt Appraisal Expert Committee
Most of them were dissolved after achieving their respective objectives, however,three Expert Committees (SB, SC and SK) have continued their activities for 35 years
up to the present time. In particular, SC 2 has concurrently served as the national
committee for ISO/TC 27 since its establishment in November 1971, with examinationof ISO materials and preparation of Japanese response plans. The research results of the
Research Committee are summarized as follows:1.

In 1954, the 1st collaborative experiment was implemented with theparticipations of 44 analysis laboratories nationwide, and precision within alaboratory (repeatability) and precision between different laboratories(reproducibility) of the then analysis method (JIS M 8802) were estimated.
Because the value of precision between different laboratories reached 10 times
the value of precision within a laboratory, the 2nd, the 3rd, and the 4th
collaborative experiments were implemented from 1955 to 1957. They
selected the factors which were considered to be influential to precision
between different laboratories, screened off important factors with experiments
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using orthogonal array, estimated optimum conditions, and then obtained thevalues of precision both within a laboratory and between different laboratories
each time. In such experiments, analysis methods were improved, and in 1959,

2.
3.

4.

the JIS M8810 – 8814 was finally completed for almost all analysis items. Jiro
Nitadori, Takashi Miyazu and Toshimi Fujimori played the central role in theseresearches, and they were respectively awarded Doctor of Engineering degrees
by the University of Tokyo, based on their researches carried out in thisResearch Committee under the guidance of Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa (See
Section7.3). On the other hand, Prof. Ishikawa received the Fuel Society ofJapan Award for his promoting the researches mentioned above.
The total number of original JIS drafts prepared by the Research Committee
was about 20, according to the Bulletin mentioned below.
Ever since the results of the Research Committee were issued as the firstnumber of “Bulletin for Sampling Research (BSR)” in February 1952 by theExpert Committee on Iron One, the results have been arranged as materials by
respective Expert Committees and published. The bulletin continued to be
published even after Prof. Ishikawa’s death, and its 238th issue was publishedin February 1992.
As a matter relating to all Research Committees, “General rules on toleranceof analysis and test” were established in 1974. The feature of this standard wasthat the condition of intermediate precision (reproducibility within alaboratory) was to be recommended rather than the condition of repeatability
as a way of repetition of analyses and tests. This came from Prof. Ishikawa’s
philosophy as follows:i. Intermediate precision is essential for the three-shift production sites;
ii. Priority should be given to the accuracy of average analytical values
over analytical precision of each test item.
The standard conformed well to the actual conditions in Japan that had toimport most raw materials and fuels and to export products. Though only
repeatability and reproducibility (between different laboratories) were
stipulated in ISO 5725-1981, intermediate precision (reproducibility within alaboratory) was newly adopted as Part 3 in its 1992 revised edition by theJapanese proposal, which is the proof of Prof. Ishikawa’s foresight.

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PART III Accomplishments of Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa(2) Activities related to the Sampling Research Committee

Based on the research activities of the Sampling Research Committee, thefollowing activities were conducted under the leadership of Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa:1.

From November 15 to 18, 1965, at the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, a Japan-US
Cooperative Science Seminar entitled “Seminar on Sampling Theory in the
Characterization of Bulk Materials” was held under the co-sponsorship of theJapan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the U.S. National
Science Foundation (NSF). This seminar was held because the JUSE Sampling
Research Committee and Prof. Ishikawa received a request for cooperationfrom NSF and JSPS.
The participants in the Seminar were as follows:
Japanese side:
Kaoru Ishikawa, Masumasa Imaizumi, Shiro Joko, Masayo Kanematsu,
Toshio Kitagawa, Hitoshi Kume, Saburou Suganami, Umetaro Takahashi,
Genichi Taguchi, Takashi Miyazu, Sigeiti Moriguti
U. S. side:
R. L. Anderson, Robert E. Bechhofer, Robert M. Becker, Charles A.

2.

3.

4.

Bicking, W. Edwards Deming, Louis Tanner, W. A. Thompson, Jr.
From October 6 to 9, 1970, at the East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, theSecond Japan-US Cooperative Science Seminar entitled “Seminar on
Sampling Theory in the Characterization of Bulk Materials” was held under
the co-sponsorship of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and theJapan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). The leader of the Japaneseside was Prof. Ishikawa.
From October 17 to 19, 1972, at the Keidanren Kaikan, Otemachi, Tokyo, the“International Symposium on Air Pollution Prevention Technology — thePresent State of Air Pollution and the Progress of Prevention Technology” washeld with Prof. Ishikawa as the organizing committee chairman. The
establishment of the Environmental Preservation Sampling ResearchCommittee was inspired by the holding of this symposium.
In 1979, the “Basic Research for establishing measurement methods withwater quality automatic measuring instruments” ordered by the Environment
Agency was conducted under the chairmanship of Prof. Ishikawa.

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Chapter 13 Research and Standardization of Sampling Method and Analytical Testing Method(3) Writings related to sampling researches

Before the 1950s, there were few publications applying statistical techniques tosampling and measuring methods in industry. Prof. Ishikawa prepared introductory
handouts on sampling for the quality control workplace organized by JUSE for the firsttime in autumn 1950. A book titled Sampling in Factories was published by Maruzen in
July 1952 after several revisions of the handouts. Moreover, a book titled Introduction
to Sampling Methods was published by JUSE Press.
Thereafter, many experiments were carried out by the JUSE Sampling ResearchCommittee and JIS committees, etc. As a result, experiment methods and sampling
equipment were progressed. Moreover, actual conditions of transactions also changed invarious ways. Introduction to Sampling Methods was revised to cope with such changes
and in July 1967, Sampling in Factories New Edition was published by Maruzen.
(Toshimi Fujimori, Toshihiro Arai)

13.3

Establishment of JIS on Tolerance of Analysis and Test

(1) Establishment of JIS Z 8402 “General rules for permissible tolerance of chemical
analyses and physical tests” / JUSE Draft Preparation Committee

1.

Background of establishment: In the late 1960s, several analysis and test
methods prescribed in JIS were numerous, and the number of those related toores and metal materials alone totaled more than 210 methods. Also in thosedays, with the rapid increase in import of raw materials and fuels and export ofproducts, these analysis and test methods did not remain domestic issues alone,
but also came to attention from overseas. Due to this circumstance, the relation
between JIS and ISO, ASTM, BS or other overseas standards also became
important issues. At the request of the Agency of Industrial Science andTechnology (AIST), the “Ores and Metal Materials Analysis Standards System
Survey Committee” (Secretariat: The Union of Japanese Scientists andEngineers (JUSE)) was established and conducted a comparative survey of JIS
and overseas analysis standards for about one year from July 1968. One of theconclusions of this survey was related to the issue of tolerance of analysis
methods.

355

PART III Accomplishments of Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa“Tolerance is used as one of the means to judge superiority or inferiorityof analysis methods themselves objectively. It is required to decide on
the number of significant digits of quantification limits and analyticalvalues of analysis methods and also to identify any of the analysis
methods and samplings responsible for problems in business transactions.
Therefore, tolerance setting is indispensable for the future development
and improvement of analysis methods.
However, due to factors such as the relationship with material andproduct standards, difficulty level of joint experiments, and industry
conditions, it is considered difficult to identify tolerances of all analysis
methods immediately. So, it is appropriate to establish “General rules ontolerance of analysis methods” as a concrete guide to first give fullrecognition to the necessity of tolerance and then to determine tolerance
in the future.”
Based on the above conclusion and the request from all parties concerned, the“Committee of Preparation of JIS Draft for General Rules on Tolerance of Analysis
and Test” was established in JUSE by the order from AIST in order to start
preparing the draft under the chairmanship of Prof. Ishikawa in June 1969.
Tolerance is defined by JIS Z 8402 established in 1974 as follows:(a) Permissible limit of variation of judgment values of analyses, tests,etc.
(b) Difference between the prescribed standard value and the prescribed
limit value.
2. Process of preparing the JIS draft: The first meeting of the Committee washeld in August 1969, and it was decided to expand the scope to cover not only
chemical analyses but also physical tests, and to start with the investigation ofa large number of documents on tolerance in Japan and overseas. Work wasadvanced under the policy of preparing a guidebook to determine tolerance byclarifying the errors of measuring methods, etc. when deciding, or after having
decided, on analytical or testing methods. Thereafter, by July 23, 1971 when
the draft preparation was finally completed, a total of more than 30
committees or manager meetings were held, and the number of submitted or
discussed documents totaled 111.
Prof. Ishikawa provided leadership in preparing the draft mentioned above,and in particular emphasized the importance of performing measurements of356

Chapter 13 Research and Standardization of Sampling Method and Analytical Testing Method

reproducibility within a laboratory to determine the tolerance of reproducibility
within a laboratory (intermediate precision).
(2) Reflection of JIS Z 8402 in ISO 5725 / Japanese Standards Association (JSA) TC
69/SC 6

ISO 5725 corresponding to JIS Z 8402 was established in 1981, but due toproblems with its contents, the work of preparing its draft revision was started
immediately after its establishment. Finally in September 1991, the revised edition of
ISO 5725, “Accuracy (trueness and precision) of measurement methods and results”
was approved. In the revision of the ISO standard, Japan had the charge of preparing thedraft on the following points and was able to have the Ishikawa philosophy in JIS Z
8402 reflected in the revised ISO 5725:
1.

2.
3.

Introduction of intermediate precision (reproducibility precision within alaboratory as stipulated in JIS Z 8402) in addition to the existing repeatability
precision and reproducibility precision in different laboratories,
Improvement of checking procedures to judge adoptability of measurement
results,
Introduction of control procedures within a laboratory.

To promote consistency with the revised ISO 5725, JIS Z 8402 was revised in
October 1991. For the 17 years since its establishment in 1974 up to its revision in 1991,
the contents of JIS Z 8402 had never been revised although regular confirmation of thecontents every five years and correction of some misprints had been made. This isbecause at the time of the establishment of the JIS standard in 1974, analytical andstatistical experts collaborated closely under the leadership of Chairman Kaoru Ishikawa
to perform thorough work without any major problem in contents.
(Takashi Miyazu)
Note: In ISO 5725 (1991 Revised Edition), tolerance is defined as follows:(a) Tolerance is expressed in terms of performance, accuracy, trueness and precision
with regard to errors of measurement and test values under the prescribedmeasurement conditions for the same sample. (permissible tolerance)(b) The limit with a prescribed probability of the range of measurements and test
values of n numbers obtained under the prescribed measurement conditions forthe same sample. (critical range, critical difference)(c) The limit with a prescribed probability of the difference between
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PART III Accomplishments of Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa

measurement/test values and certified values obtained under the prescribedmeasurement conditions for reference materials and certified reference materials.
(critical difference)Prof. Ishikawa and ISO 5725
(Precision, Trueness of Measurement Method andMeasurement Value)
Takashi Miyazu
Life is said to be like a tapestry of chance and necessity... It is rare, however, tocome across such a chance or lady luck that may completely change one’s subsequent
life. In my case, it was good luck to meet Prof. Ishikawa at the Sampling ResearchCommittee of Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), although I didn’t
realize it at that time.
When I joined NKK Corporation, I happened to be assigned to the Testing Section.
I was in charge of coal analysis and became a member of the Coal Expert Committee of
the Sampling Research Committee of JUSE. That was the start of my good luck. In
order to revise JIS, joint experiments to find precision within a laboratory (intermediate
precision) and precision between different laboratories are implemented, and thenexperiments to examine causes of analytical error were carried out. In the process, I
received guidance from Prof. Ishikawa on statistical data analysis, design ofexperiments, and so forth. The feeling that “the scales fell from my eyes” at that time isstill vivid now.
Until then, I had thought “there should not be analytical errors” and had taken
primary, single-factor experiments for granted. However I, a mere analyst in those days,
was inspired to reverse my way of thinking by Prof. Ishikawa’s words, such as “Datawithout dispersion are false,” “Interaction is important for the research of analysis
methods,” and “Repeatability has little meaning; what is useful is intermediate
precision.” These thoughts still continue to resonate as JIS Z 8402-1974 (General rules
on tolerance of analysis and test), contributing to the industry immeasurably. This isbecause the origin of SQC (Statistical Quality Control) is based on data, and all theideas and techniques for expressing and improving precision and trueness of data aresummarized in this standard.
The international standard corresponding to JIS is ISO 5725, of which the current
version established in 1981 has, however, no stipulation on intermediate precision358

Chapter 13 Research and Standardization of Sampling Method and Analytical Testing Method(reproducibility precision within a laboratory). Part 3 (International Measures of thePrecision of a Test Method) of the draft revision of ISO 5725 distributed in June 1989 tomember countries for voting was prepared by Japan, and it was indeed the intermediate
precision in Prof. Ishikawa’s style. Prof. Ishikawa’s philosophy about analysis some 35
years ago is now finally being recognized internationally as the draft ISO standard,
which can be said to be a formidable foresight.
It took about 9 years to complete the draft of ISO 5725 Part 3, but in the process, I,
the present writer, reported the progress status to, and received advice from, Prof.
Ishikawa each time I attended the ISO/TC 69/SC 6 meeting every year. Professor
Ishikawa was very glad when we completed our final draft in 1988, but it was
regrettable that I could not report the result of voting to him. When the revised ISO
5725 is published, I would like to dedicate it to Prof. Ishikawa first of all. To Professor
Ishikawa who gave me a turning point in my life, and who supervised my academic
dissertation that I was able to write under his guidance, the one and only thing I can do
now to repay his favor is to complete ISO 5725.
(Professor, Nishi-Tokyo University;
former NKK Corporation Technical Research Center)

13.4

Standardization of Iron Ore Sampling Methods / The Japan Iron and SteelFederation

With the remarkable growth of the Japanese iron and steel industry and theresultant increase in the import volume of iron ore in the late 1950s, the industry keenly
felt the necessity of international standards on rational sampling, analysis and testing
methods and appealed it to the Japanese government. In response to this appeal, theJapanese Government gave ISO a proposal to set up a new technical committee (TC) inorder to establish international standards in this area in March 1960. The proposal was
accepted and a new technical committee TC 102 (Iron ore) and its subcommittee SC 1
(Iron ore sampling) were established in June 1961. Japan became the Secretariat of the
TC for the first time. The duties of this TC were to prepare the international standards
on iron ore sampling, sample preparation and moisture content measuring methods.
In August of the same year, at the request of the Agency of Industrial Science andTechnology (AIST) to improve the domestic system in response to the establishment of Re-revision proposals Part 3 was eventually approved at London Meeting in October 1992 and wasestablished as ISO standards.
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PART III Accomplishments of Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa

the new ISO/TC 102, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation (JISF) organized the Japaneseinternal committee for the ISO/TC 102. Prof. Ishikawa assumed the position ofchairman of the sampling technical committee that was established as a subsidiaryorganization of the Japanese internal committee and started its activities. The firstmeeting of the sampling technical committee was held on November 13, 1961, andthereafter he had contributed as the committee chairman for about 20 years up to the204th meeting held in January 1981.
For the last 20 years, he attended a total of 13 SC 1 international meetings, one SC
1/WG meeting and one editorial meeting, of which, he served as the chairman of the 1st
and 7th TC 102/SC 1 international meetings held in Tokyo in 1963 and 1972,
respectively. Moreover, he represented the Secretariat since the establishment of SC 1,
and made an effort to lead the Japanese internal committee to prepare the international
standards.
Through Prof. Ishikawa’s efforts, the following two JIS standards related to ironore sampling were established:
JIS M 8105

Iron ore sampling methods, and methods to determine particle size
and moisture content (established in 1961 and revised in 1966, 1970
and 1976)

JIS M 8710

Methods of sampling, size determination, moisture determinationand physical characteristics determination of iron ore pellets(established in 1970 and revised in 1976)

Note: In 1985, ISO 3081 – 3087 were converted into JIS M 8701 – 8705.

JIS M 8100 which was established on the basis of Prof. Ishikawa’s activities inUnion of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) Sampling Research Committee wasa basis for the enactment of these standards.
Furthermore, ISO standards established through Prof. Ishikawa’s efforts are as
follows:
ISO 3081
ISO 3082
ISO 3083

Iron ores ― Manual sampling method
Current JIS M 8701
Iron ores ― Mechanical sampling method and sample preparation
methodCurrent JIS M 8702
Iron ores ― Manual method of Preparation of samples
Current JIS M 8703
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Chapter 13 Research and Standardization of Sampling Method and Analytical Testing Method

ISO 3084
ISO 3085

Experimental methods for evaluation of quality variation
Iron ores ― Experimental methods for checking the precision ofsampling
JIS M 8100

ISO 3086

Experimental methods for checking the bias of sampling
Included in Appendix of JIS M 8100
Iron ores ― Determination of moisture content
Current JIS M 8705

ISO 3087

These international standards are all based on Prof. Ishikawa’s theories, and also
are used in TC (Manganese ore, etc.) which is another kind of mineral product of ISO,so that they may be said to be the basic standards related to sampling in the current ISO.
Prof. Ishikawa was awarded the Asada Medal by the Iron and Steel Institute ofJapan (ISIJ) in 1976 for reasons of his contribution to the development of the iron andsteel industry by the spread of statistical quality control, etc. The Asada Medal is theprize awarded to the “person who has made outstanding contributions to the progressand development of the iron and steel industry by academic and technologicalachievements in the peripheral and boundary area of the iron and steel industry.”
Note: In finalizing this section, we wish to express our gratitude to all the members of theStandards Office of the Japan Iron and Steel Federation (JISF) for their cooperation inproviding us with valuable materials, etc.

13.5

Research of Sampling for the Purpose of Preserving the Environment /Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), Environmental
Preservation Sampling Research Committee(1) Inauguration of Environmental Preservation Sampling Research Committee

This Research Committee was established in May 1971 as a place of collaborative
research for researchers, engineers and statisticians of academic, industry andgovernment research laboratories on the methods of measuring and sampling various
materials for the purpose of environmental conservation. The chairman of the
management committee was Prof. Ishikawa and its secretariat was established in JUSE.
Environmental problems had already become social issues in those days, and theactivities of improving various public environmental regulations and JIS environmental
measurement JIS standards had already started. In terms of measurement technology,
however, there were problems with the following points:
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PART III Accomplishments of Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa

1.

2.

Values of environmental standards and emission standards varied by country
and/or prefecture, most of which were caused by the poor level of technology
in those days.
Most of environmental measurement JIS were established without sufficientexperiments and examinations in time, so that specified tolerance on
measurement errors was hardly written on it.

In consideration of such circumstances, this Research Committee established thefollowing three subcommittees for the purpose of conducting researches on sampling
and measuring methods as a basis for environmental preservation, and collected
information and conducted collaborative experiments, etc. The outline of the respective
subcommittees is as follows:
Subcommittee chairman
Air Quality Subcommittee

Kaoru Ishikawa

Water Quality Subcommittee

Kunisuke Ichikawa

Soil Subcommittee

Tadakazu Okuno

Objective substanceSOx, NOx, dust, etc.
CN, phenol, Cr6+, Hg (inorganic),
BOD5, CODMn, CODCr, TOC,
TOD, n-hexane extract, etc.
Heavy metals mainly in soil (Cd,Zn, Pb, Cu, As, Hg, etc.)

These subcommittees drew up each research program and conducted collaborative
experiments to examine precision within a laboratory (intermediate precision),
reproducibility between laboratories and trueness (bias) of relevant JIS standards. Basedon their results, they made technical improvements in sampling and measuring methods,
and determined tolerance for measurements by the improved methods, contributing to
the revision of JIS and yielding some results in this field before finishing theirresearches in March 1982.
(Toshimi Fujimori)(2) Air quality subcommittee

Prof. Ishikawa formed the Air Quality Subcommittee of the Environmental
Preservation Sampling Research Committee of JUSE, and served as chairman of thesubcommittee to tackle air pollution problems enthusiastically. He wrote many articles
on environmental problems, including “Environmental pollution and sampling andmeasuring methods” (Hinshitsu Kanri (Statistical Quality Control) magazine) and “Air362Chapter 13 Research and Standardization of Sampling Method and Analytical Testing Method

pollution and the future of its prevention” (ENGINEERS). In the Air Quality
Subcommittee, he started to make sure of the fact whether environmental (air quality)
data was reliable or not and the analysis methods were right or not.
At first, Prof. Kano, as secretary of the subcommittee, called for private-sector
research laboratories to form an industry-academic collaborative body to start with thereview of analysis methods of JIS and conducted an “examination of SOx analyticalprocedures.” Thereafter, Prof. Kume and I respectively took over the duties of chairman
and secretary of the subcommittee, respectively, and proceeded to an “examination ofNOx analytical procedures,” the results of which we reported and/or published inacademic meetings, in bulletins, etc.
The results contributed greatly to the revision of JIS and how to handle data on air
quality. Prof. Ishikawa left many sayings in his writing Statistical environmental
management. Some of them are as follows:
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.
6.

If you see environmental standards, consider them inaccurate. If you seeemission standards, consider them inaccurate. If you see sampling,measurement and analysis under the present emission and environmental
standards, consider them doubtful.
Grasp the actual state first before thinking about the cause. Grasping thecurrent situation is the first step of quality control. Are you sure you havegrasped statistically and epidemiologically the differences between the
background and the condition of having problems? If you run toward the cause
immediately, you would make a mistakes like a hasty person (type I error).
Environmental and emission standards are alternative characteristics. The
relationship between alternative characteristics and the real quality
characteristics is the same as in quality analysis.
Is it possible whether a public officer who has not experienced environmental
management is able to perform environmental management? It will be asuperficial and uneconomical management. It will be the same as theexamination of the JIS mark, bringing about a certain degree of favorable
effects, but with adverse effects.
Is there any research laboratory or public office related to the environment to
run for the Deming Application Prize?
Determine the rationalization of emission standards based on data. How do werestrain such a political ignorance of science whereby prefectural governments
make their local standards stricter than national standards?
363

PART III Accomplishments of Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa

7.

8.

9.

Which unit or unit quantity certified by inspection of environmental pollution
should be brought into question? Should it be annual, monthly, 24-hour, 8-hour,
one-hour or one-minute average? What kind of harmful effect does it have on
the health?
Unless those engaged in environmental pollution study the theory of statisticalerrors well, they will be persons leading Japan to unhappiness. What ismeasurement errors between sampling, analysis and pollution?
What is more important is how to interpret errors in view of variations
depending on human bodies affected by environmental pollution.

The environmental problems are now showing signs seriously again, and thesayings left by Prof. Ishikawa are still alive and relevant today, don’t you think so?
(Nobuo Ikebe)364