Japan (cont.)

Feathers of Japan


(The blog is to appreciate Japan for their achievements. I don’t have any intension to compare Japan with any other nation)

So let us look at the exceptional accomplishments by Japan.
- Second largest Economy by Nominal GDP
- Third largest in purchasing power
- Fourth largest exporter (more export than import)
- Fifth largest importer
- 10th on HDI (Human development Index) above all other superpowers
- Highest life expectancy (According to UN)




Japan has achieved this within area of 377,944 km2 and population consists of 127,380,000 people. Through out 1900-99, every decade in Japan has consistently given birth to 5~6 world class companies who all became market leader. Nikon and Panasonic in 1917-18; Bridgestone and Nissan in 1931-33; Sony and Honda in 1946-48 started the journey in the most challenging times. And today, most of them are giants in their respective fields. The leadership of these companies played the most crucial role in their transformation.

Sony’s (established in 1946 at bomb-damaged department store building in Nihonbashi) Akio Morita concept was to built an innovative company and in his book Made in Japan he has explain his vision of building brand Made in Japan (he was so particular that he put Japan flag at all establishments of Sony). In one particular deal, he turns down a big offer from a US firm because the US firm was interested in cheaper product. To save Sony’s image, Akio Morita took the decision against his entire colleague in Japan and didn’t took the US order for transistors to maintain Sony image as high quality product maker. Shocking it was at that time, for a post war Japan Company to turn down US firm offer, but the rest is history and we all know what Sony products mean. Infact, Akio Morita was the visionary behind taking Sony to America and establishing Sony Corporation of America. With this, in 1961, Sony became the first Japanese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).



Toyota Motor Corporation is another such success story which dared to lift above challenge. Started by Kiichiro Toyoda, Toyota launches its first passenger vehicle in 1935. Currently, Toyota is the largest automobile maker by sales and has 500+ subsidiaries. Much to its credit, Toyota has defined the terms for manufacturing industries in Japan. Lean manufacturing, Just in time and the famous philosophy know as “The Toyota Way” deals with all the fine aspects of manufacturing and people involvement. The methods are scientifically derived and surprisingly, this defining standards and ideas were introduced in Japan by US statistician W. Edwards Deming. The statistician E Deming came from US but was destined to be the part of Japanese reform.

One common notion in Japanese companies is that almost all of them are first know as Made in Japan and then by their respective names. Such strong focus on building Japan itself as trademark has helped the cause to great extent.

Flexibility and appreciating the facts is Japanese habit. When US put atomic bomb to end WWII, the second reaction of Japanese scientist was not that of sorrow but they indeed thought in different way and estimated that they are 20 years behind USA. They took it as a challenge to fill this huge gap between them and US. Their every step was to enact the change require. And with in next 20-25 years Japanese companies flood US markets and convert their relationship with US as an opportunity. Currently, US is the largest market for many Japanese companies. And Japan has achieved all this without loosing their identity. The rich culture of Japan is still inherited in all aspects of a Japanese organization.



Amidst all good things happening, Earthquake is a constant threat to Japan (10 earthquakes above 6.5 Richter had been recorded since 2000). But against all odds, Japanese had converted this weakness into strength. They look very fragile with such natural threats and limited resource. Another aspect of Japan is that they have very small area and few natural resources. They appreciate what is available and efficiently use the natural resource. Because of such scarcity of resources, Japan has mastered the art of effective usage. Once again the people realize that the resources are limited and they have to preserve it for future generations. Water, land, mineral, farms, oil etc are reserved and they don’t exploit it.

This attitude towards effective usage can be seen in all the other processes of Japan. Things are done with least possible resource. Often Japanese articles and products are very compact. Coming to the Iron ore, Japan have very few deposits and it is their process which makes them best Iron ore to steel conversion destination. Japan gets the ores from other countries, process them and sell it back. This is how Japan has managed to become 3rd largest steel producer.

If effective utilization is backbone of Japan growth then development and research is the basics of Japanese philosophy. All Japanese companies put around 20% of their revenue for research and this helps them to keep inventing. Japan puts 130 billion US dollar, for research and development (3rd largest in the world). With dominance in the field of Earthquake engineering, Manufacturing, Robotics, Electronics and semiconductors, Japan is leading the world with continuous growth.

With such attitude of people, government, intellectuals and leaders, Japan is an example of pure genius. They had a roller coaster ride throughout 20th century and ended it on a high note. With such a synergy of monarchy and democracy to support reforms, people of Japan deserve the success and first ray of Sun for many more years.