ABSTRACT
Nagamachi was born in Kobe, Japan, in 1936 and graduated from the psychology department of Hiroshima University in 1963. Following this, he studied medicine and engineering. He undertook consulting activities for Nissan, Toyota, and Honda among others, and during this time he learned statistical quality control, manufacturing system, robotics, safety engineering, as well as management. After graduating, he moved to the Engineering School, Hiroshima University, to teach human factors engineering and management and has been a teacher for 32 years. During the period 1967-1968, he was a guest scientist at the Transportation Research Institute of the University of Michigan where he formed a close relationship with Dr. Richard Pew, who was a professor at that time. Just after returning to his country, he was invited by the Japanese Government, MITI, as the youngest ergonomic researcher
of the Automobile Research Committee whose mission was to make the Japanese automotive industry a world player. Nagamachi’s main research can be divided into four fields: (1) Job design and cell production systems; (2) Participatory ergonomics; (3) Safety management using the brain model; and (4) Kansei engineering/Kansei ergonomics.
