this is a day in the life of a Japanese
knife maker
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[Applause]
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this is then at 24 years old living in
gifu Japan and she's just waking up for
work
she lives on her own in this apartment
it's pretty common to live with your
parents in Japan even after graduation
but in her case she moved out surely
after she got her current job in fact
about 70 percent of single workers in
Japan ages 18 to 34 years old continue
to live with their parents how long does
it take for you to wear makeup
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then it loves to cook and she usually
makes her own breakfast to get a good
start in the day
and I guess this morning she's making a
Fresh Smoothie foreign
standards her apartment is quite
spacious for someone in their 20s but
it's one of those advantages of living
outside of any of the major Japanese
cities
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she commutes a workout by car in total
20 minutes door to door
before looking at our current company
Nanny studied at a specialized
agricultural High School focused on food
production food science and overall
nutrition although her current job
didn't align exactly with her studies
when she heard about the opportunity she
decided to go for it so I'm back with
another day in life I am super excited
for this one finally made it outside of
Tokyo I'm at the factory right now
waiting for Nene she should be parking
her car soon good morning did you sleep
well
oh are you nervous
well let's see how the day goes so Nene
works as a knife technician at zwilling
J.A Henkels Japan originally a 291 year
old German knife maker who eventually
set up an office in Japan and later
acquired the knife Factory here in seki
city also known in Japan as a city of
blades crafting Flawless samurai swords
and knives for more than 800 years in
producing half of Japan's total knives
in the city alone today 90 of the
company's knives sold in Japan are
actually made at this Factory then he's
been working at the knife Factory for
five years now in the Kaizen Department
Kaizen itself a Japanese term meaning
continuous Improvement in a gradual
methodical process
her day starts with a team meeting where
she's assigned specific tasks wow
they're checking their hands apparently
it's absolutely critical that their
hands must be free of cuts or injuries
that could potentially flaw the knives
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oh she's already on her first task
inspecting the sharpness of the knives
in Japanese hocho these particular ones
are used as the factory resharpens all
their knives sent in by their customers
and it's her responsibility to verify
that the resharpened knives mean all the
quality requirements to ship back to
their customers so how much paper did it
cut
damn the paper didn't stand a chance
anyways let's see what she has next
as part of the Kaizen group throughout
the day she's also tasked with
performing random inspections on knives
being crafted that day to ensure that
each knife meets the factory strict
quality standards which also means that
she's responsible for knowing the
details about each and every knife
that's crafted in the factory including
the entire build process for that
individual knife and the technical
requirements each one must satisfy in
order for her to fully perform the
inspection
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okay she's moving on to a different
building again you always walk this much
so how many people are doing the same
task
okay so for your job what's the most
important thing is
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so what are you checking now
naturally being tapped with the
responsibility to inspect every type of
crafted knife it requires her to
continually visit different sections all
throughout the factory which could be
tiresome for many people but she enjoys
the opportunity to engage with other
workers outside of her team and welcomes
the regular walks
so it looks like Nene is going to be
taking notes for just a little bit so
while she's doing that let's cut out of
here and see what we can find
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let me quickly break down how a Japanese
knife starts okay so I think here this
is where they do the heat treatment this
is a yucky day process where untreated
pressed steel blades are heated by a
specifically designed furnace to more
than a thousand degrees Celsius
1832 degrees Fahrenheit
oh Elsa look at those frozen blades
after the initial cooling the hardened
blades are moved to an accelerated
freezing state in fact the tempering
process of heating and freezing the
steel blades restructures and stabilizes
it on a molecular level forming a
perfect blade that's not only hard but
flexible at the same time
once tempered the blade tends to come
out slightly warped from expanding and
shrinking due to the extreme heat and
cold izumitori is a process where the
blade is hammered and straightened by
hand requiring a true Craftsman to
recognize the subtle imperfections in
each blade
ah okay so it looks like at this place
they assemble all the knives by hand so
Japanese knives are known to be some of
the sharpest knives in the world but
historically their handles were not one
of their strengths and needed to be
regularly maintained however the factory
has developed its own specialized
techniques to build stronger handles
while also doing it by hand
before the blades received their final
sharpening they're finished off here hi
can I talk to you what are you working
on
it
apparently she Smooths out bumps and
extra bonding and that's before and
after
so it's 10 o'clock right now and I just
heard a bell ring and all of a sudden
people just started turning off the
lights and I think they're taking a
break now all the workers in the factory
get three 10-minute breaks throughout
the day it's fairly mandatory as each
job requires a significant amount of
focus and concentration so breaks are
crucial for maintaining performance as
well as preventing injury
what are you doing now
why is this test important
she's also responsible for testing the
knives in the laboratory using various
machines tools and even chemicals she
says that it was quite a challenge to
memorize all the test technical
procedures and how to even use machines
so it required a lot of effort in
setting for her in the beginning to
master this part of the job it looks
like he's sharp with it now though by
the way as a kid do you think you would
become a knife technician
but then it was still in high school a
friend who worked at the factory told
her about working as a knife technician
which helps spark her interest enough so
that she scheduled the tour of the
factory to learn more about it
oh now Nene has to go to the monthly
Improvement meeting she was nervous
about this morning
apartment review their achievements for
that month and discuss how they can
improve I'm sure n is going to be fine
what could go wrong
how'd it go
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ES
yay finally lunch time it looks like
she's gonna eat with her co-worker kind
of interested to see what they're gonna
eat
what are you making
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she says for lunch he often orders the
factory provided bento box since it's
offered at a reasonable price in fact
it's part of typical Japanese Factory
culture to offer this type of bento box
so that all the employees can eat at the
same time while not having to leave the
facility and at this Factory at 160 Yen
a dollar 18 USD is a deal that's hard to
beat so what's in it today
oh what's your favorite dish
have you been with the company for a
long time cool so what do you like most
about the job
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after lunch she performs periodic tests
in the kitchen on new knives still in
development cutting various foods and
comparing it with their existing line of
knives as it's one of the
responsibilities to coordinate these
tests he says it is a great opportunity
for her to view the latest knife
crafting Technologies first hand before
it's ever released so then he's going to
be doing a little bit more testing so
you all know what we do let's see if you
guys can handle some more exploration
okay let's see what else we can get into
oh this looks like a store hi what's
this shop for yeah
so do employees get discounts what isn't
it like how much
there's just so many knives here but I
think this is not all the knives that
they produce here in the factory this is
Miyabi one of the world's sharpest
knives a handcrafted Japanese knife
brand that's only made in this Factory
and some marked with its own unique to
master style design on the blade that
was kind of cool let's see what else
they have
excuse me can I ask what you do
this
what are you working on now
oh can I see it oh maybe it's
confidential information
putanga
wow that's so many here they designed
two products each year one for Japan and
one for the international market they
create all of their own designs from CAD
drawings to designing parts thank you
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absolutely that's a really cool knife
wow this is a Miyabi red Morimoto knife
a collab knife with Iron Chef Morimoto
this is so cool look at all of these
people sharpening knives finally the
knives are sharpened known in Japanese
as hon bazuke apparently sharpening the
knives by hand is one of the most
challenging Parts when crafting a knife
so much so the factory itself only has
nine Specialists who have mastered the
skill and at the moment only two who are
skilled enough to perform kiwami on
bazuke the most extreme and Technical
knife sharpening possible and this lady
is one of them
hi can I ask you some questions so
what's the difference between where you
were and here
so what's the most difficult part of
this job
and what do you like about your job
thank you
once the knives are sharpened and
finished each one receives a thorough
cleaning and inspection depending on the
Japanese knife the production process
and duration varies some of the
handcrafted knives can be completed in a
month while some of the high-end
handcrafted knives require more than 100
individual processes in more than three
months to complete every single detail
accounted for to ensure a consistent and
high quality Japanese knife is crafted
each and every time
what are you doing now
is also responsible for inspecting
finish knives before being packaged if
she discovers even the slightest flaw
she sends it back to the appropriate
section so it can be reworked every
single handcrafted knife must be perfect
before it's shipped out what's next
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despite being part of the Kaizen group
and having a deep understanding of the
entire process of how knives must be
crafted you must continue to work on her
technical skills such as knife
sharpening although the thousands and
thousands of hours spent on their
sharpening technique is never completely
forgotten time away from the skill will
gradually dull her technique so she
always sets aside time to maintain her
technical knife crapping skills Nene
says that she's proud of all the skills
she's acquired over the years and
excited every day to learn and improve
on her techniques and she takes
satisfaction in knowing that the knife
she helped hand crap will ultimately be
appreciated by someone somewhere in the
world all of this keeping her motivated
and looking toward the future at the end
of the day she has a little bit of desk
work and she's also responsible for
entering logs for the inspection she
completed that day
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you still have work to do
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finally done what are you doing after
this
party which is a very typical Japanese
home party basically consisting of a
group of people gathering in someone's
home to sit around a hot pot share food
drinks and stories usually in the winter
but can also be done any time of the
year today they're specifically having
skiaki
oh cool her friends are here
wow they're doing it up and having
heated UV wagyu brand from this area do
you girls often meet up like this
so what do you do in your free time
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what are you girls drinking
oh I see they all drove here I guess
it's a weekday so they're keeping it
mellow tonight that's Gucci wagyu beef
fat it adds a distinctive sweet flavor
to the dish many supermarkets offer it
for free so it's commonly used in Japan
when cooking steaks in hot pot
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after a full day performing at the
highest level she appreciates being able
to send her mind away from work to enjoy
a home-cooked meal with her good friends
all right so there you go it looks like
they're gonna finish dinner probably
around 8 30 and then after that Nene
we'll go and clean up and then probably
take a bath and then finish off the
night go to sleep at 11 o'clock that's
pretty much a day in the life of a
Japanese knife maker if you guys like
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