[2] In the late 1970s and early 1980s Kano and his colleagues laid the foundation for a new approach to modeling customer satisfaction.

Kano challenged the conventional beliefs that improving each attribute of a company's product or service will lead to increased customer satisfaction.

Noriaki Kano completed his undergraduate, masters, and doctoral degrees in the engineering school of the University of Tokyo.

He was the 1997 recipient of the Deming Prize for Individuals, administered by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE).

[6][7] Kano is a recipient of the Georges Borel Award for international contribution by the European Organization for Quality (EOQ).