  Urbanoutdoors Member Username: Urbanoutdoors Post Number: 634 Registered: 11-2005 |
http://www.worldchanging.com/a rchives/007648.html I am not saying that this would solve Detroit's problems but it definitely brings a different perspective to how to live and do business. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3176 Registered: 06-2004 |
"I’m responsible for everything I see." | ||
Iddude313 Member Username: Iddude313 Post Number: 119 Registered: 07-2005 |
"What could Detroit learn from Japan?"... More neon!  | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3178 Registered: 06-2004 |
ugh | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 2077 Registered: 10-2006 |
"it definitely brings a different perspective to how to live and do business." Detroiters don't like different perspectives. That's why they have been doing the same thing for years, meanwhile things around them are changing. Go figure. | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 710 Registered: 07-2007 |
Considering tokyo's winter avg. temperature is 42-F they can be more eco friendly. That office workers should put in twelve hours a day to help with corporate profits. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 5672 Registered: 11-2003 |
A whole country who plays baseball in domes. Make a car somebody fucking wants to buy. Live in tiny places like a country the size of Montana with 127 million people. Drive on the left side of the road. Vertical parking lots, 15 stories high. Bullet trains 200 MPH which run to the minute. Tourist luggage moved around the country by truck while you sleep. No schlepping on trains. Natural hot baths. Geishas who are hot! Everybody bowing to you. Longest life expectancies in the world. jjaba. | ||
Crash_nyc Member Username: Crash_nyc Post Number: 1054 Registered: 08-2004 |
Urbanoutdoors, I assume you're getting at the way business is conducted on a corporate level in the "Big Three", by upper & middle-management, right down to line workers and unions. Being married to a native Japanese woman, and after spending a quite bit of time in Japan, I'll offer this: The typical Japanese corporate environment is predicated on the idea of "honor", or "saving face", from the CEO, right down to the lowest-level workers. Suicides are not unusual among CEOs who have driven their companies into the ground. Life insurance providers in Japan only recently decided that they will no longer pay-out to people who commit suicide, partially because CEOs were killing themselves after writing suicide letters expressing their wish that the massive pay-outs from their policies be distributed to the employees that they had wronged with their bad business decisions. Saving face. The idea of a "union" has no place in Japan, because it is generally understood by employees that once hired by a company, they exist to serve the company and make it better, no matter what the personal cost. If the company does well, then Japan does well. You are not simply working for a paycheck, but for the overall good of the country. This idea dates back to post-WWII, when Japan was in shambles. In the decades to follow, every company that did well was a boost to Japan in general. As an employee, if you were perceived as being selfish in any way, you were ostracized by your peers, and labeled unpatriotic. How the ideas of "saving face" and "making a profit" balance themselves out in corporate Japan is mind-boggling, but somehow they make it work. The ideas of "logic" that exist at the forefront of American business, are trumped by "honor" in Japanese business. Essentially, illogical financial decisions sometimes need to be made in the interest of "saving face". This is why the Japanese business culture would NEVER fly in the United States, especially in heavily-unionized Detroit. Japanese companies have adapted to the American way of doing business IN America, but within the geographical boundaries of Japan, the old rules still apply. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3182 Registered: 06-2004 |
"If the company does well, then Japan does well. You are not simply working for a paycheck, but for the overall good of the country." I think this is the type of united vision that's missing in the US workplace. Lower level employees feel, and are treated as, cogs in a machine that serves no purpose other than generating massive income for stockholders and high level administrators. There is no sense of honor in American business. The contributions of the lower level workers aren't given recognition so the workers have to 'demand' it and the only way they can is via the unions and contract bargaining. Also, the income gap between Japanese executives and other workers is nowhere near what it is in the US. There's a substantial difference between "making a profit" and "maximizing profit". One should also be aware that many American and other suppliers have made a point of learning Japanese custom so as not to offend their cliental, especially at Honda. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 6854 Registered: 02-2004 |
We Americans make Japan what it is today. A super-capitialist/religious cultural boom. A long time ago Japan is isolated from the rest of the world, ruled by the Shoguns and Samurais. Now they are not afraid of world anymore. We Americans dropped -A bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII, fix up their nation and developed into a quick capitalist boom duplicated our western technology and continue with their international trades with various nations, even they have to buy most American companies on our soil and buying their imports that cause the Big Three to lose profits every day. So what Detroit learn from Japan? DEVELOPMENT and TRADE! to the extreme. | ||
Genesyxx Member Username: Genesyxx Post Number: 823 Registered: 02-2004 |
It would be nice to have some color around here. I swear it looks like Dayton, OH. | ||
Ndavies Member Username: Ndavies Post Number: 2899 Registered: 10-2003 |
I think you have it backwards. The question really should be, What can Japan Learn from Detroit? The entire nation of Japan is at a turning point. It is about to embark on a very perilous future. Japan has slipped into negative population growth. There are more people dying than being born. This is an issue affecting a great many industrialized nations. Japan's issue is compounded by their strong anti-immigrant policies. The US would be in a similar sorry state if it were not for our more open immigration policies. Think of the issues that are caused by Detroit's population decline. Now extrapolate that across an entire country. What happens to property values when there is less demand for housing and work facilities? It affects sales of consumer products. The Japanese auto market is already seeing a large decline due to the changing demographics. While our car sales are in a dip, Japanese car sales have begun what it expected to be a continually declining market volume. It increases health and welfare costs. With fewer healthy young workers around to support the sick and retired older citizens. | ||
Rax Member Username: Rax Post Number: 27 Registered: 11-2007 |
I doubt Japan is concerned about being the next Detroit. Just a guess. | ||
Ndavies Member Username: Ndavies Post Number: 2901 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: You really think that? You obviously haven't been paying attention. They sound pretty worried about it to me. This BBC article shows they are already seeing Detroit like symptoms in smaller villages. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asi a-pacific/7084749.stm quote: Sure sounds like Detroit in the 80's to me. Japan's population issues will make Detroit's population problems look like a minor hiccup. | ||
Ray Member Username: Ray Post Number: 1061 Registered: 06-2004 |
Japan and Detroit can both learn from each other. Japan is not perfect, and life in Japan for the average person is very hard. It goes like this: Wake up in 600 sf apartment in drab high rise. Commute by train and bus 90 minutes to office job. Work in stiffling beauracracy for hours 12 ours. Commute by train and bus 90 minutes to 600 sf aparatment. Collapse exahusted in bed Repeat. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 5677 Registered: 11-2003 |
Ray, classic post. You tell it exactly as it tis. Work your ass off all day, then expected to party with bosses, then ride train home, late. Arise early, repeat above. All weekend, try to act excited about your wife and kids, sleep alot. Monday morning, arise 5am and repeat above. jjaba. | ||
Crash_nyc Member Username: Crash_nyc Post Number: 1058 Registered: 08-2004 |
The increasing disparity between old & young is definitely a concern in Japan. It's not that there are that many more old people than there used to be, it's that more and more people are deciding not to have babies, or expand their existing families. It's a sign of the economic times, and many Japanese people see this in simple terms: if your finances are unsteady and you don't think you'll have the money to raise a child properly, then don't have one. During our last visit to Japan (to introduce our baby boy to his Japanese relatives), we were shocked to find that a lot of (Walgreens-type) convenience stores no longer carry baby-related items such as formula and diapers. Up until recently they did, but these days there are just not enough babies around to keep the stock moving off the shelves. Scary. |
