Uchida-Kraepelin Performance Test — Reveals Ability and Personality / Behavioral Characteristics, illustrated with two working curves.
Uchida-Kraepelin Test Insights

Uses of the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Safety Management

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Recommended if you want to…

  • Strengthen safety management in logistics, transport, construction, manufacturing, hygiene management or similar work
  • Use aptitude testing to build a group with fewer accidents
  • Manage your entire organization objectively
  • Reconsider personnel placement from a safety perspective

Supporting the safety reputation of Japan’s railways

Japan’s railways are known worldwide for their safety and punctuality. Yet there was a time when serious accidents involving many fatalities occurred frequently.
Around 1948, shortly after the war, the Japanese National Railways experienced so many serious accidents for which it was responsible that even GHQ recommended improvements.
The railway then focused on people who repeatedly caused accidents. On the view that accidents were not simply random and that some people might be involved repeatedly, it explored various ways to identify this tendency in advance.
The Uchida-Kraepelin Test was found to correlate with repeated accident involvement.
Introducing the test as an aptitude assessment contributed to a decline in accidents for which the railway was responsible, from 1,400 or more per year to 300 or fewer within several years. Of course, this was the combined effect of multiple measures, including initiatives other than aptitude testing.
The source article describes the Uchida-Kraepelin Test as required under an ordinance of Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and as continuing to support railway safety.

Regular checks add value beyond selection at recruitment

The key to using the test for safety management is to assess aptitude during recruitment and then repeat testing regularly to monitor changes in working style.
As the source article notes in discussing traffic accidents involving older people, working speed and judgment can decline with age. Psychological ill health, such as depression, can also affect judgment in various ways.
Regular testing can help identify such changes and reduce the occurrence of accidents.
The article describes how Japan’s railway industry has long operated a system of mandatory periodic testing every three years, in a sense anticipating later stress-check systems.

Used for accident prevention in buses, delivery services and factories, and in Japan’s Self-Defense Forces

The approach to safety management developed in the railway industry spread to other sectors, including buses, parcel delivery and accident prevention in factories.
The Uchida-Kraepelin Test is used not only by private companies but also for personnel who join Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.
It is used to assess aptitude for operating vehicles requiring particularly high levels of safety, such as tanks, submarines and fighter aircraft, and as information for a range of personnel placements.
For work involving physical tasks, the Uchida-Kraepelin Test can be described as having particularly strong predictive value for working style compared with other psychological tests.
Introducing the test for safety management can help build groups with a lower probability of causing accidents.
If you face challenges in safety management, especially personnel selection or placement, consider trying the test.


To arrange the Uchida-Kraepelin Test, a work-based aptitude and personality test that can be used in the same way in Japan and overseas, please contact your nearest distributor in your country or region.

Distributors in East Asia

  • South Korea
    • Korea Management Association
      • Main areas served: Seoul, Daegu, Busan, Gwangju, Jeju
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Management consulting
      • Languages supported: Korean
  • Mainland China
    • Shanghai Oracle Bay Enterprise Group, Co., Ltd.
      • Main areas served: Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yancheng, Nantong, Nanning, Ningbo, Bengbu, Xining, Yinchuan
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Human resource development
      • Languages supported: Chinese
    • NINGBO NAPU TRADE CO., LTD.
      • Main areas served: Ningbo, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Dongguan
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Manufacturing consulting, Fabless manufacturing
      • Languages supported: Chinese, Japanese
  • Hong Kong
    • N-ERVE TECHNOLOGY
      • Main areas served: Hong Kong
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Manufacturing consulting, Fabless manufacturing, Recruitment
      • Languages supported: Japanese, Chinese
  • Taiwan
    • Pasona Taiwan
      • Main areas served: Taipei, Hsinchu, Kaohsiung
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: HR consulting, Human resource development, Recruitment
      • Languages supported: Japanese, Chinese

Distributors in Southeast Asia

  • Thailand
    • Krung Asia Insight
      • Main areas served: Bangkok, nationwide Thailand
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Thailand market entry consulting
      • Languages supported: Thai, Japanese
    • Waguri
      • Main areas served: Bangkok, Chon Buri, Rayong, Nakhon Ratchasima, Chiang Mai, Lamphun
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: HR consulting
      • Languages supported: Japanese
    • Pasona HR Consulting Recruitment (Thailand)
      • Main areas served: Bangkok
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Recruitment, HR consulting
      • Languages supported: Japanese, Thai
    • TRAINING AND SEMINAR KOTSUKOTSU
      • Main areas served: Bangkok
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Human resource development, Recruitment
      • Languages supported: Japanese, Thai
  • Vietnam
    • Kosaido HR Vietnam
      • Main areas served: Hanoi (on-site visits available for Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and other locations)
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Recruitment, Human resource development, Vietnam market entry consulting
      • Languages supported: Japanese, Vietnamese
    • Success Partner
      • Main areas served: Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Organizational development
      • Languages supported: Vietnamese
  • Myanmar
    • J-SAT CONSULTING
      • Main areas served: Yangon, Mandalay
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Recruitment, Myanmar market entry consulting, Japanese language education
      • Languages supported: Japanese, Burmese
  • Cambodia
    • Creative Diamond Links
      • Main areas served: Phnom Penh
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Recruitment
      • Languages supported: Japanese, Khmer
  • Malaysia
    • Pasona HR MALAYSIA
      • Main areas served: Kuala Lumpur
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Recruitment
      • Languages supported: Japanese, Malay, English
  • Laos
    • Lao-Japan Gateway
      • Main areas served: Vientiane
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Cybozu Kintone, Laos market entry consulting
      • Languages supported: Japanese, Lao
  • Indonesia
    • Bruggen Batavia Indonesia
      • Main areas served: Jakarta, Bekasi
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: HR consulting, Legal consulting, Visa consulting
      • Languages supported: Japanese, Indonesian, English
    • Japan Asia Consultants
      • Main areas served: Jakarta, Bekasi
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Indonesia market entry and company incorporation, Accounting and bookkeeping, Tax services, Labor affairs, Legal services, Visa services
      • Languages supported: Japanese, Indonesian, English
  • Philippines
    • One World Human Resources Development
      • Main areas served: Manila, Quezon
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Japanese language education, Human resource development
      • Languages supported: Japanese, Tagalog, English
  • Singapore
    • Pasona Singapore
      • Main areas served: Singapore
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Recruitment, HR consulting
      • Languages supported: English

Distributors in South Asia

  • India
    • Pasona India
      • Main areas served: Delhi, Gurugram, Chennai, Bengaluru
      • Other services available alongside the Uchida-Kraepelin Test: Recruitment
      • Languages supported: Japanese, Hindi, English

If you cannot find a nearby distributor or would like to arrange testing in multiple regions, please contact us using the contact form.