--- title: "Go From Wake Up to Wind Down With This Japanese Truck Factory Worker" date: "2025-05-28" modified: "2025-05-28" authors: - name: "Ronan Glon" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/ronan-glon" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/go-from-wake-up-to-wind-down-with-this-japanese-truck-factory-worker" categories: - "News" --- # Go From Wake Up to Wind Down With This Japanese Truck Factory Worker ![An Isuzu factory worker inside a manufacturing plant.]() *\Paolo fromTOKYO via YouTube\* When I was a kid, my elementary school had a program that let students shadow adults at their job for a day. The idea was to show us what working as, say, an architect was like. "Japanese [assembly plant]() worker" wasn't one of the options available, but a video posted on YouTube fills that void. It documents a day in the life of someone who works in a huge Isuzu factory that assembles about 500 trucks per day. The YouTube video by [Paolo fromTOKYO]() follows a 27-year-old man named Shun who lives in an apartment owned by Isuzu. This practice is fairly common in Japan: About 41% of Japanese companies offer some type of housing, according to the narrator. After getting ready, Shun walks 25 minutes to the Isuzu plant in Fujisawa, makes a quick stop at a 7-Eleven for breakfast, clocks in, and starts his shift as a manufacturing department captain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeeLq01FRYY Beyond shedding light on the daily routine of a Japanese factory worker, the video gives us a fascinating and rarely seen glimpse at what an Isuzu plant looks like from the inside. About 6,000 people work in the Fujisawa plant, and it's so big that employees rely on shuttles to get around. And yet, every section of the factory that's shown in the video is stunningly clean. The narrator explains that this cleanliness is rooted in the Japanese concept of "sort, set in order, and shine." The idea is that a well-organized work environment increases productivity. Another thing that stands out in the video is the number of humans working on the assembly line. Isuzu builds commercial vehicles, not [niche, small-batch supercars](), so payload capacity and maintenance costs are more important to buyers than old-school craftsmanship. However, human workers remain essential because there are so many different variations of Isuzu's trucks all built under the same roof. The company notably sells different models, several variants of each model, as well as gasoline- and diesel-powered trucks. Workers like Shun keep the line moving smoothly and ensure that Isuzu can build a complete truck from start to finish in approximately 150 minutes. *Got tips? Send ’em to tips@thedrive.com* ## Author Ronan is a contributing writer for The Drive. He draws on over 15 years of experience to cover breaking industry news, cool one-off builds, and anything in between. He began writing for The Drive in 2021 and stepped into his current role in 2024. His obsession with cars started when a relative gave him a Majorette die-cast shortly after his first birthday. It hasn't flickered since. Ronan lives in France; He swapped Utah's Rocky Mountains, where he grew up, for the Alps. He's an avid hiker, mountain biker, and musician. He also restores classic European cars and mopeds, including a 1978 Citroen 2CV that he's rebuilding from the ground up. ### Author social links [Twitter]()