Japan: Automation Nation?

The world's most efficient economy still employs lots gas station attendants and elevator operators. Why?

By Daniel Gross | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jun 30, 2009 | Updated: 12:01  p.m. ET Jun 30, 2009

« Return to Article

Discuss

Member Comments

  • Posted By: Randy K @ 07/15/2009 5:15:05 AM

    As an American living in Tokyo I can't tell you how nice it is to receive real customer service at almost every business. Something Americans forget is that there is value in customer service -- customer service is not an 800 number answered in India but a true desire to help you complete your task as efficiently and pleasantly as possible -- and that in itself makes society better.

  • Posted By: sprout_stone @ 07/03/2009 10:32:04 PM

    Maybe,japanese would like to share the bad economy.just as share the economy boom !

  • Posted By: danvanderweyden @ 07/02/2009 9:01:34 AM

    Article 27 of the Japanese constitution reads: All people shall have the opportunity, and obligation, to work. Dan v.

  • Posted By: peacefuldove @ 06/30/2009 5:13:09 PM

    Normally, I would agree but Japan has been getting nasty habits from America without the American system that protects the people.
    A case in point is the short term employment phenomenon in Japan. Japan got the idea of only hiring short-term employees from the Americans but America has unemployment to cover lay-offs. Japan doesn't. This has caused a phenomenon of unemployed youths that roam internet cafes because the companies refuse the hire long-term employees. In America if a company did that their unemployment insurance/tax would skyrocket. Japan doesn???t have the system to penalize hiring and firing people on a whim, because in the past it was seen as a duty to keep employees you hired to stay on. Now they have a few permanent employees and majority being probationary or short-term employees.
    Frankly, I think Japanese culture in protecting the people is correct and better for their society. In America the individual is considered the master of their own future but in Japan it???s about the whole group. Japanese people would become violent or crazy if they had to live like Americans. Not to mention they would lose the whole charm of Japan and its culture.
    I hope Japan stops copying America when it comes to business practices. It???s not a good fix. Stability keeps people placid. I hate to see Japan become another America.

  • Posted By: John_Toradze @ 06/30/2009 4:00:07 PM

    No discussion of Japan starts to be realistic without talking about Japan's labor laws which are the most protectionist on earth. Nowhere else is it protected behavior for a union to take hostages of management and owners. Nowhere else have courts ruled that managers who resist can be thrown down stairs and if they break their arm in the fall, it's their problem, not the union's.

    These laws are a legacy of WWII occupation when USA's labor movement was at its height. And they have shaped Japan tremendously, and in ways that are not generally understood. The Japanese "Company Union" happened because of those laws, since any union can destroy any company that it wants, there is no incentive for sympathy strikes. Kanban and JIT came to be because of those laws, because part of those philosophies is that workers eliminate head count. In Japan, when head count is eliminated one place, the company has no choice but to move the workers elsewhere. This is why Japan's mega-corporations have been so consistent at innovating incremental improvements, and new products. American companies cannot do that for the simple reason that management, like everybody, takes the easy way out if it can. The easy way out is to lay people off instead of find new products.

    One small effect of this is that unions have preserved a few jobs (as the author notes) which may not be productive. But, perhaps they are more productive in actual fact than managements tend to think. Reality is, most managers are mediocre, and most management consultants are terrible. The preservation of power in the rank and file in Japan has made it possible for the rank and file to press for things that managers don't see as useful. I would be very slow to call Japan's "extra workers" inefficient. It is at least equally likely that our ideas are rubbish.

    Take a look around. It is not as if the USA was a paragon of economic power these days. We have gone downhill steadily for decades, and the cause of it certainly appears to be where Deming said it was. "American managements are the worst in the world." is how Deming said it 30 years ago. Nothing has changed today, except that we are now seeing the evidence in front of us every day. Our professional managerial elites are idiots, educated on drivel that is almost all of it completely wrong.

  • Posted By: McLovinB @ 06/30/2009 3:42:31 PM

    Well, DG, glad you took the time to see what is up outside of Manhattan.
    Make-work? I think you do not get it still. In Japan, those people doing such functions are not just window dressing for the customer. They are learning the importance of being people and performing tasks that are valued. After doing those tasks and learning those skills, they are off to do other things. The result is that everyone in the country is crosstrained, given dignity and experience, everyone gets face time with the customer. The level of service has been developed beyond anything you saw. Imagine cable companies and cell phone providers and airlines where people are polite AND competent.
    It sounds as though you spent a couple of days in Japan's big cities. If you think that was an eye opener, I wonder what you would think if you had gotten out of Tokyo and Osaka and into the real Japan. Japan is a bastion of human dignity.

    Can you imagine a better nation to take the lead in producing the world's robots than one which actually cares about people? I can't.

Reply

Report Abuse

Enter comments if any for reporting abuse